


Finding Link

by Umbreonix



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: BotW spoilers, Champions revive, Eventual Romance, M/M, Revali's stuck up, That Will Never Change, but it's slow!, eventual Link POV, post Resurrection link is chatty, revali pov
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:02:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 37,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25597732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Umbreonix/pseuds/Umbreonix
Summary: The calamity has been defeated and the Champions are revived on a pure white full moon. Everything is back to how it was, except not really. One hundred years has taken its toll on Hyrule-and where has the hero gone?Revali is sent on a quest to find Link (but not without a lot of angry squawking about it). He travels the lengths of Hyrule with nothing to go on other than a full library of photos the hero had left in Zelda's sheikah plate. As he journeys though, the question of 'where is Link' slowly transforms to 'who is Link?' because this grinning boy in the pictures surely cannot be the same stoic brick wall they all once knew.
Relationships: Link & Revali (Legend of Zelda), Link/Revali (Legend of Zelda), Mipha & Revali (Legend of Zelda), Revali & Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
Comments: 391
Kudos: 1146





	1. Chapter 1

Moments after the fall of the calamity, a full and glowing white moon shone over Hyrule. Every hint of remaining malice was decimated under the holy beams. The fatigued princess and battle-worn knight finally fell to their knees in exhaustion. For a minute anyway. Then they witnessed a miracle.

As a final gift from the divine light, long lost friends slowly reformed in front of them, eyes wet with tears of victory.

Zelda cried out in delirious elation and stumbled towards the revived warriors.

Revali tried to hide his joy, but even his defences dropped for the night as the princess of the fallen kingdom held him close and sobbed into his feathers. 

He caught Link's eye for only an instant. The knight... nodded politely but had already cast his gaze down as he did so. Cool. Detached. Infuriating as always. Maybe... there was some comfort to be taken in that though. In a world where everything had surely changed, he supposed that there was something to be said for at least _one thing_ remaining the same.

The celebration began with them all sprawled out in the center of the sanctum, exhausted but together.

The conversation started sombre, as they discussed all that had happened since they had parted ways that day at Mount Lanayru but it soon grew light with the anticipation for tomorrow and talk of the futures they never dreamed they'd have.

At some point, unbeknownst to any of the weary warriors laying flat on the ground, Link sulked off to tend to his wounds.

Soon after that one wonderful night, with their mission now completed, they separated.

Mipha returned east where she was welcomed back with loving arms. One hundred years was hardly any time lost to a Zora.

  
Daruk headed back for the mountains. While no one remained of his original brothers, he was recognized immediately as his face had been memorialized in stone. Even though his family was no longer of this world, he found quick camaraderie and a sense of home with his descendant and new brethren. The chief prior had been getting on in years, he happily stepped down to accommodate the legend himself.

Urbosa journeyed back to the far southwestern deserts of her birth. He hadn’t heard much of her after, and it wasn’t like he could visit Gerudo town to figure out how she was readjusting. (not that a distinguished rito such as himself would ever cross that furnaced wasteland to do so, she would only be so honoured). He had heard from Zelda though that she was getting on well with her granddaughter.

As for Revali, he was the only one who stayed behind with the princess in the ruins of the castle. He was questioned ceaselessly about it but he always managed to avoid giving an answer for his reasons.

  
Finally, the Hylian Champion… the hero with the sword to seal away darkness. Well, Link had seemed to have disappeared entirely.

It was a hard thing for Revali to wrap his head around. There was a time where the Princess could not shake her silent shadow no matter how hard she tried, but they had grown close in the years before the calamity. None of the champions had missed those less than subtle looks she would send him indicating feelings stronger than she would willingly let on.

He had assumed she held a special place in the knight’s heart as well. Not that the rito was ever actually sure that he even had one. The guy was a stone-faced puppet of the king if ever he saw one. Yet he had heard that Link showed a softer side to the princess. He would even speak to her sometimes, something Revali had never managed to get him to do no matter how hard he would bait him with sharp words and taunts.

So why, the day after the calamity, while all of the champions were recovering, did the knight march up to the princess and announce his resignation?  
Zelda, to her immense credit, took his departure in stride. She had fought Ganon alone for one hundred years, she wasn’t about to become the heartbroken damsel over some boy. While she still looked seventeen, she was well past that now in maturity.

But even then, he could still see her glance out the window now and again and sigh and it wasn’t hard to guess who that sigh was for.  
He had caught her again today, glancing wistfully to the horizon midway between her endless scurrying about to organize the Castle Town reconstruction project.

  
He had let it go for so long but enough time had passed that he felt it only right to finally approach the subject. The elephant in the room so to speak.

“Well,” he said, her attention snapped over. “You are looking especially… cogitative today princess. Surely you can’t still be watching for that hasbin hero?”

  
“I just worry,” she said. “It would be one thing if I knew where he had gone, but as far as I know, Link has still not shown his face to anyone since he left.”

  
“He’s fine,” Revali scoffed. “He defeated Ganon, he’ll hardly get done in by some moblin out in the wild. If he doesn’t want to be found that’s no feather off of my wing.”

But it was. He was IMMENSELY curious. Nothing had added up. There was something they must not know and it was eating him from inside. Link would NEVER leave Zelda’s side so willingly.

“You didn’t see that look he had when he left,” she said. “Like he knew it would be the last time we might ever meet. I... know my goodbye for nows from my goodbye forevers.”

Of course he hadn’t. That insufferable hylian hadn’t even shown his face to the champions that morning.  
After all the support they had given him!

If nothing else he could have said farewell to Mipha, Goddess knows she deserved something for the way he had dragged the two princesses along in that ridiculous love triangle one hundred years ago.

She glanced at the Rito nervously. “Which this seems like as good a segue as ever… you know Revali… I’ve been thinking…”

Uh oh. This was never good, but he'd humour her. “Out with it then,” he urged, crossing his wings, already prepared for a very Zelda-esque scheme to exit her mouth.

“I want you to find him,” she said.

“And why would I do something so… pointless?!” He toned back his indignation as much as he could but his voice still had an unfortunate squawk-ish sound despite his best efforts.

“Because you’re the only person of whom I’d think could do it,” she said. Well that sure pat his ego a little and he did have to agree. A master of the air could go anywhere he set his eye on _and the rito species sure had a keen eyesight._

“As well,” she said. “I think it would be good for you. I am the princess of Hyrule, it is my duty to lead this reconstruction, but it pains me to see you tether yourself to this place.” She glanced back sadly at the razed city and the ruined castle. “Even at its most beautiful, you had always hated it here.

“You realize you’re sending me out on a boondoggle of a quest. He could be anywhere! I have much better uses of my time,” he sniffed haughtily.

She gave him that look. That one that said she knew better, and he swallowed his indignation- because this was something they both did. He had been wandering purposeless in this world from the moment he returned. 

“Please,” she begged. “If not for him, for my own peace of mind. Just make sure he’s alive, it’s all I ask.”

Something in the way his wings slacked must have betrayed his submission.

She smiled at him and pulled out her sheikah slate. “Take this,” she urged. “It will help you. I had taken the first twelve photos myself before the calamity but he seems to have filled the rest of the memory up on his travels. Perhaps they hold clues to where he might have gone.”

Revali took the device. “Fine, but if this turns into too much of a fox chase, I can't promise what I'll do to him when I _do_ find him.”  
She grinned and he bristled, muttering under his breath what a waste of his efforts it was going to be.

“Thank you Revali,” she said gratefully.

He just sighed dramatically and flew away.

That Link was always making a mess of things. It infuriated him to no end.  
He just wanted to get this feather-brained task over with so he could return to… huh… return to where exactly?


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Revali heads to Hateno

He had made perch on the massive central Hyrule tower and quickly opened the slate’s memory to scroll through the images. Or tried to as best he could. The touch screen did not seem to have been made to work with feathers in mind.

The first twelve pictures were nothing too special- just different landscapes that must have caught the princess’ eye.

The first of Link’s pictures was a young sheikah girl. Unable to recognize her, he continued past it idly… then paused, disbelief rife across his features.

Link had taken a self-portrait- but there was no trace of the Link he knew in this image. The hylian was smiling ear to ear, posed in front of a house of distinct Hateno architecture. Between him and the house, a group of men sat around a cooking pot, eyeing the camera curiously. Sheikah technology was all but lost to modern society so the entire concept of taking a picture probably eluded them.

Hateno then.

It was as good a lead as any.

Even with wings, it was a long journey to the coast of East Necluda. He had intended to fly through the night but a thunderstorm forced him to take shelter within the Dueling Peaks tower.

There had been a stable nearby, but Zelda had been partially right in her previous analysis of him. He hadn’t just hated castle town and the palace though; he hated the entire concept of walls that the Hylians were so enamoured with. A rito belonged in the open air.

He thought about keeping awake and waiting out the storm but knew how to read the skies, even in the dark. There was no end in sight to those massive cumulonimbus clouds- He was in for the night.

He hung a hammock between a set of pillars and despite the massive thunder crashes, felt more at peace in his rest than he had in the last couple months since he had revived. He was finally back to sleeping in the sky rather than a stuffy room in the castle ruins.

The fiercest part of the wind was mostly blocked by the nearby mountainside. It whistled through gaps and fractures in the uplifted metasedimentary beds, dissipated to a calm breeze by the time the air had reached his swing, rocking his bed in a gentle swaying motion. If he closed his eyes, it felt remarkably like home… and yet not at all.

His species were a communal type. To be alone, away from one’s flock hurt his very biological instincts.

To its credit, the storm did it’s best to drown out the quiet, but it was hardly enough to distract him from the absence of any other’s presence.

Zelda wouldn’t have understood even if he had explained to her how large a request she had made of him- and it was too embarrassing for him to say out loud anyway. She'd have thought him a hatchling if he said that the idea of leaving the side of one of his last living friends nearly sent his heart into a panic.

She had grown up in that bizarrely private, withholding and restrained environment that was hylian high society. She wasn't someone acclimated to a sense of community.

Hylians were such strange and formal creatures. They choose to live in colonies... and then spend their lives on the pursuit of getting as far away from each other as possible. Distance meant status. Fences around properties proudly demonstrated how much land they were able to inch their homes away from their peers. Outer walls hid them away from their neighbours. Inner walls separated them from their own kin's familial warmth.

Finally, in the most extreme of cases- such as with the former hylian champion- they'd even build mental walls around themselves to shut absolutely everyone out all together!

The entirety of hylian imperial society was a rito’s bed terror- as contradictory as that statement was with his decision to stay in castle town.

He distracted himself from the creeping emptiness of his solitude by returning to the princess’ slate.

He fascinated over the image of Link.

It felt… too private for his eyes. This was a side the champion had always kept hidden and yet, there was no indication that these people he was sharing his smile with were anything more than passing acquaintances.

When had he made this change? When he had woken up away from the princess’ side? No, he had been unreadable during their brief exchange on Medoh, refusing still to speak to the rito even in what they had assumed would be the last moments they’d ever share. Oh how he'd coaxed him too! He had been alone for one hundred years! It was a wonder he kept any semblance of his sanity! When Link had shown up- as much as he'd once been his least favourite person in Hyrule, he was just happy to have someone to talk to for those fleeting moments!

But the knight wouldn't even give him that.

He scrolled through more pictures, each frame showing a boy who was a complete stranger.

In one photo, Link was posing with a Stalhorse, joyfully imitating it’s skeletal grin with the most lunatic expression.

In another, he had managed to find high ground atop a moblin encampment and cheekily snapped a picture of himself, mocking their inability to reach him.

How much fun he had while his 'friends' were suffering a fate worse than death.

There were so many pictures of people. People of every race and every age. Most looking like nothing more than an average everyday citizen. Not anyone of special import that the world’s hero should have felt he needed to burn a permanent testament to their meeting in the ancient technology's memory storage.

At a picture of Link inside Rito village, Revali immediately shut the plate off before he could see too much. He wasn't ready yet to see his former home.

He didn’t sleep as well as he had thought he would.

In the early morning, he set off the rest of the way to Hateno, in a terrible and sleep-deprived mood.

The house was easy to spot, it was one of the first buildings on the outer edge of the town.

With his hawkish eyesight, he identified two familiar-looking men at the cookpot in the yard from fifty wingspans up in the sky. Did they ever move?

The polite thing to do would be a gentle descent so as not to startle them but Revali wasn’t feeling that polite.

He dove down at the speed he would to pluck a jumping salmon from a river, only cushioning his landing with a last-second flap of wind- a gale strong enough to put out the pot’s fire. The men jumped up in alarm.

The first to regain his bearings was an effeminate man. “Well” he said. “It’s not everyday we get greeted by such a _virile_ young rito.”

Not deigning him any response, Revali opened the sheikah slate and showed him the picture. “I am looking for this imbecile here.”

The man hummed. “Oh Link is it? What a lucky boy to have such a handsome gentleman caller~”

The younger hylian boy waved at him jovially before pointing to the building behind them. “He owns that house over there!”

“He bought a house?” Revali asked in disbelief. This was one of the first pictures he had taken on his journey. “When?” He asked.

“I don’t know,” the boy shrugged, then paused. “Actually I guess it was just a while after the earthquakes.”

“Earthquakes?” Revali asked.

“How curious,” the older man said, eyeing him closely. “I didn’t think there was anywhere in Hyrule that hadn’t been affected.”

“The earthquakes,” the boy repeated as if not believing the rito could have possibly missed them. “I guess you were flying or something like that?”

“Something like that,” Revali agreed.

“They happened right before all those towers appeared everywhere.”

The champion reeled back in shock, his feathers ruffled. That early on? Link buying a house was proof he had decided to not return to Zelda’s side- but to have done it so soon would suggest he had never intended to in the first place!

He looked at the house accusingly. “Is he home then?”

“Is he ever?” The older man asked, a sassy hand falling onto his hip. “He comes and goes. I haven’t seen him in town for a while now. I’d say you could come and sit with us by the fire and wait but it could be weeks before he shows up again.”

“Weeks?” Revali snapped so hard his beak clacked. He looked away in irritation and then noticed something curiously familiar. “Those block houses…”  
“Ah, a fine eye,” the man said. “They’re model homes of Bolson construction! My life’s work~”

“I’ve seen them somewhere else…” Revali said.

“Probably in Tarrey Town!” The younger man pitched in. “Hudson moved up there to expand the business. Link was at his wedding!”

A wedding…

Revali scrolled through the images. There was a picture with these houses in the background where Link had taken a photo of an entire wedding party curiously containing members of every species.

The boy had gotten up and glanced over the rito’s shoulder. “Yeah, that’s Tarrey Town alright. You could try the people in the village here, they're all pretty well acquainted with him- you know how personable he can be- but they probably won’t know where he went either. Someone in Tarrey Town might have a good idea though, they have connections everywhere.”

“And where exactly is this Tarrey Town?”

“In Akkala! You just have to go north!”

Revali winced. Akkala of all places. His feathers were going to be wet the entire time!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so overjoyed with the support thus far. Comments give me life :D I'm new to AO3 so I'm not sure about the etiquette of how to best thank everyone- they show up in my inbox so I want to respond so bad, but instead I will just thank you all here.
> 
> Fair warning I haven't finished the game yet- I had only started the other week and I want to fully complete all the side quests and explore around before storming Ganon so some things might not line up with the final storyline. (besides the fact that I know they don't actually come back to life) I haven't done the champion's DLC either. 
> 
> (side note- I wasted so much time during this chapter when I paused to open the game and climb around Dueling peaks to perform a proper geologic survey. I was just going to call them rocks but then I talked about the hammock rocking in the sentence after and it seemed too repetitive so I almost wrote shale or slate but then I was like, hold on, is it shale? I couldn't find a proper geologic map of the island in Japan the mountains were inspired by either. What even is this pandemic with how much idle time we have to waste?)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A stop at the Domain to see a dear friend

The Zora’s domain sat directly between Tarrey Town and Hateno.

Revali stopped for the night, this time making a much softer and respectful landing.

It seemed Mipha had noticed him in his flight in. Before he had even fully reached the water-filled central platform, she had already begun to make her way over to greet him.

“Revali…” She said. “I am ever so delighted to see you again.”

She gently reached up to graze her fingers across his feathered cheeks in a warm welcoming.

If anyone else had tried to do this, he would have snapped his beak at them as soon as their grubby hands got close because he would have assumed the gesture to be patronizing. He was NOT an animal to be pet and soothed in the same motions you would a horse.

But he accepted Mipha’s touch- and that was because he knew better than anyone there simply wasn’t a single patronizing bone in her body.

And for that reason as well, he didn’t puff up when she said. “You look tired, dear friend.”

The thumbs of her webbed fingers rubbed comforting circles over the red markings under his eyes. He supposed it was since her healing was touch-based that she was not shy to show her affection in a physical manner such as this.

"I should need to remind you Mipha that I am a fine rito warrior and not a fledgling up past his bedtime."

Of all of the champions, she was his favourite. Which was not a surprise. Of all of the champions, she was everyone’s favourite and it was well deserved.

She had healed all of their wounds more than a few times, which of course meant that she had a tendency to be at one’s side when they were at their most vulnerable.

For most, this immediately endeared her to them, but for this same reason, it had taken a while for the two of them to reach a peaceful relationship, due in part of course because Revali didn’t like having anyone see him in any level of weakened state. In their early days travelling together, his embarrassment had greatly outweighed his appreciation the first few times she had tried to help him.

It didn’t help his dignity either that, of them all, he tended to get hurt the most after Link.

The other champions had unnatural abilities they had obtained as a birthright. Mipha, her healing, Daruk, his protection and Urbosa, her lightning.  
Revali wasn't divinely graced in the same way as the other selected candidates, and there were no prophecies that cemented his place like with the Hylians. He had gotten to where he had with ceaseless hard work that still sometimes didn’t manage to match up to the other’s raw natural gifts. A complex he locked away deep within.

But the thing about Mipha was she could always manage to read those deepest parts of people’s hearts.

Even he eventually gave in to her nurturing nature. No matter how much he’d try to hide a wound she always seemed to be able to sniff the blood out like a shark… ...well he supposed that made some sense in retrospect.

She never alerted the group though. She would pull him far to the side and heal him in secret, never saying a word.

“Shall I see to it that a bed is secured for you in the inn?” She asked.

“That’s not-“

“I insist,” she said before he could even decline. “I think you will find the accommodations quite to your liking.”

He had no choice but to agree to that promise.

“Will you be staying long?” She asked.

“Just for the night,” he replied. “The princess has me out searching for… something she lost. I’m heading up to Akkala in the morning.” He had decided at the last second that it was better not to evoke the name of the missing hylian.

She nodded, in a clear understanding. “I hope… that lost object finds its way home soon.” Her eyes crinkled in a sad smile and he wondered how in the name of the Goddess Hylia, Link had abandoned her as he had.

Originally following his abrupt departure, the Rito just assumed the hero had ventured here to live out his days at the side of his childhood friend- something even he had too much tact to suggest to Zelda. 

Mipha lead him to the inn which as it turned out, was only a few paces away.

“I would love to catch up but instead I think you should sleep. Perhaps after you fulfil your duty, you can come and stay for a more protracted length of time. If you truly do not wish to return to your own people yet, I do believe you might find more comfort here with the zora.”

“I could return home at any time!” He chirped indignantly. “It is only because the princess is now unguarded that I as a noble archer with a keen eye-“ He stopped, realizing he had indirectly brought up the knight after all.

“Of course,” she said. “Well perhaps you both could come and visit sometime. I do miss you all dearly.”

“Perhaps,” he agreed.

“Well, I shall take my leave then, May your dreams be-“

She was interrupted by a powerful call. “RITO CHAMPION!”

From the air? Was it a bird? A rito? No- it was a shark.

A large zora man leapt from the upper terrace gracefully and landed in front of them, incidentally splashing Revali up to his neck. He spread his dripping wings in dramatic outrage.

“Sidon!” Mipha chid, “Revali needs his rest!”

“Nonsense sister!” The zora named Sidon grinned, showing off a row of sparkling pointed teeth. “We have an esteemed guest here at the domain! I would be a poor host not to make my greetings! Besides- a dear friend of you and Link is a dear friend of mine!”

Revali muttered something about not being his friend but the presumed prince hadn’t seemed to hear and he quickly clasped both of the Rito’s wings. “I have heard many stories of the champions from my cherished sister! I would love to hear of some of your exploits!” Was this man a zora or an overgrown hylian retriever?

Revali managed to pry his wings free and took the opportunity to open the sheikah plate. Sure enough, there was a picture of this exuberant man in the camera’s memory in which he was posing triumphantly with the same, sharkish grin.

“I suppose we should talk.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know what you're thinking- where's the Link for this RevaLink fic? Where's our budding romance? Well, he's coming sooner than you'd expect. Tarrey town WAS supposed to be next but I couldn't see why Revali wouldn't stop at zora domain on the way when I looked at the map... and I love Sidon. So much.
> 
> Thank you, everyone! You all are so lovely! I didn't expect such an immediate response. Writing is usually such a thankless job for the first bit but this community is making it such a rewarding experience!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A talk with Sidon, a test in Tarrey.

He did not know why, after spending that previous minute with the prince, that he had expected a more dignified response.

“Yes indeed we should!” The prince boomed and all but swept him off the ground to take him to a more private spot by the fountain. Revali did not go silently into the night, flapping his wings with animalistic surprise.

A Hylian tourist who had been resting in the open-air hotel couldn’t help but recall the image of a shark leaping from the ocean to catch an unsuspecting seabird upon the scene that unfolded in front of her. How brutal nature was.

Revali was released and he fluttered down onto the watery floor reeling around to give the ‘prince’ a piece of his mind.

Sidon was already scratching his cheek in a gesture of embarrassment. “I apologize, I might have gotten a little overexcited.”

Pride intensely hurt, Revali preened in a gesture of aggravation. This truly was the quest that was finally going to break him.

Unfortunately, in times like this, when his dignity comes spilling to the ground, he gets sarcastic. “No,” he said, voice dripping with saccharine venom. “I EVER so enjoy being lifted up like a flapping cuckoo, especially by strangers- we rito LOVE it when other species treat us like common birds.”

The prince, clearly one to take words at face value grinned. “Ah, excellent! I have much to learn about the rito culture, I have never ventured far enough from the domain to meet one! I am glad I hadn’t overstepped!”

Revali’s beak fell ajar for a few beats.

“I hear you’ve been staying in Castle Town! Tell me, how is Link?” The prince asked. He got surprisingly sombre for a moment, glancing back at his sister who was now out of earshot. “He… erm… he hasn’t returned to the domain since the end of the calamity.”

“Don’t take it personally, he seems to be hiding from everyone,” Revali commented.

“Ah… is that so… I wonder where he could be,” Sidon said and glanced at the statue sadly. “Why is it when I finally got my sister back, I had to lose such an important friend?”

Revali looked at the statue too, surprised to find it an intricately carved memorial of Mipha.

“I spent a lot of time mourning by this statue and only Link could ever manage to pull me away and cheer me up during those darker moments.”

Unsure what to say to that, Revali stared at the stone image of his comrade. “I’m.. I’m actually currently searching for him on behalf of Princess Zelda,” He said. “I was hoping to get information but it sounds like you don’t know where he might be.”

“No, I’m afraid not,” The prince smiled, but it was more of a dejected grimace.

“I just… can’t imagine why he would hide from Mipha like this,” Revali said.

“Well…” the prince admitted. “We may have let him in on some secrets when we had thought the worst of her fate.”

“And what nature of secrets might that be?” Revali asked.

“He… knows she was going to ask him to marry her after Ganon fell. We had to give him the armour she had created for her proposal so that he could board Van Ruta.”

Revali was dumbstruck. “So she is essentially waiting on a response now for his hand?”

“Perhaps… he has some soul searching to do first?” The prince said with a hint of optimism. “We would so gladly welcome him here into our family. So many of the citizens and members of the guard here cherish him as well. He grew up playing in our waters with them.”

Revali felt a small twinge of jealously. How nice it must have been to have your friends and loved ones stand the test of time. Link was being such a fool. If the rito had thought even one of his fletching friends remained at his former home, his wings would not be able to take him there fast enough.

“I will find him,” Revali solemnly swore, “and I will get her an answer even if I have to wring it out of him.” He sniffed. “Though frankly, she deserves better.”

\---------------------

He departed the next morning to his original destination after a heavy breakfast of fish. He had to admit, the zora did have excellent taste. He would almost consider Mipha’s suggestion of taking up residence after if it weren’t for the people’s widespread inability to detect sarcasm. He hated how friendly he sounded to their earnest ears. (Did they have ears?? otoliths??)

His good mood, as was the norm, ended up being short-lived.

HOW. APTLY. NAMED. Tarrey Town in-flapping-deed! The think Link had tarried so much and so off-course to his quest- enough to end up building an entire town from the ground up in middle-of-nowhere Akkala!

Although even he had to admit the town was a marvel in some ways. Revali had never known the different species to intermingle to such an extent. Gerudo’s mixed with hylians as a necessity for breeding purposes, but for a zora to willingly leave his domain, or further, for a rito to leave the roost- It was almost unbelievable.

Speaking of which, the curious eyes of said rito-townsmember made him wholely uncomfortable.

The young shopkeeper stared at him for the entirety of his infuriatingly drawn-out conversation with the man named Hudson.

It was absolutely bizarre seeing an adult rito that he had never met before and judging from the other man’s glances, he must have thought the same.

Hudson was useless in the end.  
The Akkala trip was clearly a bust.

People had seen Link sure, but they had no idea where he had gone. When he had first departed on this journey, he had thought it would be a fool's errand to try and find a single person who knew the stoic knight. Instead, he was finding it a challenge to meet anyone who didn't. Yet despite all that, not a single person had any sort of clue as to where he had went.

At the very least, he had been in town recently. So he wasn't DEAD. If only that was enough info for Zelda he could just be on his way.

It took more courage than he’d ever admit to finally approach the general store but the large display of arrows drew him in.

“Well,” he said, allowing his feathers to skim over the merchandise in reverent appraisal. “It’s clear that these were built by rito wings.” He said in a rare bout of praise, “If it’s one thing hylians and gerudo can never seem to do right, it’s producing a proper arrow.”

The man was amused and if the quick puff of air he exhaled was any indication, he clearly agreed. “They seem to think that attaching any stick to a shoddily sharpened hunk of ore constitutes an arrow. It’s why their production quality is always all over the place.”

The two laughed for a while in Revali’s favourite past-time, mocking other’s inferiority, and he bought as many bomb arrows as the store had stocked.

“Well you must be quite the archery savant," the shopkeeper beamed. "Tell you what? It’s been a while since an honest-to-goodness rito archer stopped by, if you can hit some targets, I’ll gift you some regular arrows.”

“Well I’ll have to accept,” Revali agreed, “It’s been a while since I’ve made a demonstration of my skills. You should feel honoured.”

“Honoured huh?” The man joked, routing under the table for a number of discs. “I don’t know, I’ve seen some pretty good archers, it takes a lot to humble me.”

“I was once considered the greatest in the village,” Revali informed him. "You won't see any display better in your lifetime."

“Shouldn’t have said that,” the other Rito scoffed. “Now I’m going to have to up the difficulty.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” The champion replied haughtily.

There were few safe places to mount the targets in the town itself so the arrow vendor and him flew down to a small outcropping of rocks in Lake Akkala and he immediately got to work, setting up a number of floating targets as well as a climbing path of discs up the side of the Tarrytown bedrock.

The rito- he now knew his name was Fyson- sighed as he inspected his own work. “Well it’s no flight range but it’ll have to do… think you can get them all in a minute?”

Revali mapped out his flight path in his head. “Try twenty seconds.”

“That’s not poss-“ Fyson began to protest but his words were lost in a gale of air as Revali launched himself high into the sky.

He picked off the targets on the island's high outcropping side in a rapid and effortless succession, sinking arrows into the dead center of the last three all at once, his body angled horizontally.

He let himself gain speed in a graceful fall, catching the wind under his wings just soon enough that only his talon broke and grazed the water’s surface and then he spiralled up with his gained momentum, making quick work of the floating water-borne targets from the sky.

He landed next to Fyson in an effortless feat of aerial manoeuvring and found the boy adequately awe-struck. “That was eighteen seconds…” Was all he could utter.

“And you promised you'd make it hard,” Revali cooed.

“Take your arrows, you earned them,” Fyson said, shoving the bundle at him. “Who ARE you?”

“The greatest archer you’ll ever meet I’m sure,” Revali said, believing that to be the most humble of the number of responses he could give.

Before Fyson could ask any follow-up questions, Revali was already flapping his wings in preparation. “Well I’m out on official business, I must be one my way,” and with that, he flew off in another burst of air. Fyson wasn’t going to have as easy a time getting back up.

He was very pleased to know his skills still amazed and astonished one hundred years later. Not that he was worried the rito of the future would have ever caught up in such a short amount of time. He was a once in a millennia talent after all.

It had begun to storm not long after his departure, which was a shock because it stormed on his way in as well, AND while he had been trying to interrogate those rock-headed Gorons.

WHY had anyone chosen to live here?

When the thunder and lightning got too intense, even he had to concede that it was time to take cover. He didn’t want to get zapped into a pair of cooked drumsticks.

This place almost made him question his title of “master of the sky”. ALMOST.

There was a small roadside shelter along the main road that was clearly built for such a purpose as to protect travellers from the unpredictable Akkala weather and he glided in without a second thought.

It was not until he had settled and began to stare out into the torrential downpour that a voice calmly said: “Oh hey.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Boop a doop. Thank you for reading. Idk why my notes from chapter 1 keep appearing in my most recent chapter, I am clearly inept at working this site.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angry birb.

Revali reeled around at the unfamiliar voice to find… well… to find the mythical hylian himself who was looking surprisingly more feral than he ever remembered him.

To say he was underdressed would be an understatement- he was about as scantily-clad as a bokoblin. Naked, save for a few pieces of armour that covered his more delicate parts. On a side note- it must be terrible to have all your sensitive bits naturally dangling and poking out to the open all of the time. _Very primitive for such an uppity and conservative race_ , Revali would think later.

What looked like a lynel skull helmet sat at his side. Given his lithe frame, the barbarian get-up should have looked ridiculous on him, like a child in a costume, but the myriad of fading scars across his tanned skin gave a sort of brutal authenticity to the whole ensemble.

Revali had to begrudgingly agree that it suited him, even though it was the furthest look from the well-polished knight of the past.

Link had clearly been in the process of setting up a campfire for the night, wood having been laid out in preparation for the flint in his hand.  
But he wasn’t starting the fire, he was staring at his former ally with a very ‘caught’ expression.

It took Reval much too long a time of dumbly gawking before he could finely tune his anger and indignation to an appropriate level, allowing the umbrage to simmer to a proper rage.

“OH HEY?” He repeated manically. “THE AUDACITY-“ and then he stopped and collected himself because he doesn’t yell. Yelling demonstrates a lack of refinement and it suggested a degree of uncontrol over the situation that he would never, in another one hundred years, let the knight observe.

He got sassy instead. “Well,” and he let that word sit, putting extra importance in each following syllable. “Aren’t you so very important these days? To have everyone seeking you out like some elusive creature. You must think yourself the very king of the mountains himself.”

“Oh hey,” Revali tutted again in scorn, shaking his head. “All these years and all this recent effort I’ve begrudgingly had to put in and all you have to say is: Oh hey!"

Link opened his mouth but Revali had stood up and began to preach. "Oh what an honour it was on this day that my lowly self could hear that beautiful utterance from those perfectly formed lips! Goddess Hylia you have found me at last and brought to life this marble statue of man so that he might endow upon me his divine wisdom. 'OH HEY', may those words be sung from every rooftop in Hyrule!” He reached a wing to the sky the other on his heart. He was too caught in his own performance, reciting to the great beyond to notice the way the Hylian had quirked an eyebrow at the mention of his 'perfect lips'.

When Revali turned, Link was just sitting back with a bit of a teasing grin. “I’d talk more if you didn’t monologue so much.”

The rito’s feathers fluffed intimidatingly. Or at least in a way that he had thought was intimidating, still culturally unaware that Hylians found fluffy things more cute than terrifying- something Zelda had never found the heart to tell him.

The champion got back to work on the fire, striking a knife across the piece of flint until a spark got an ember going.

“I figured we’d run into each other eventually,” Link finally said. “Word on the ground was a high-strung rito was on the hunt for me. Wasn’t too hard guessing who that was.”

He didn’t say anything after that, instead choosing to peacefully stoke the fire. It seemed even this new chatty version of the hero had a proclivity to speak only in small words and short sentences. He was seemingly the kind of person who would never use five words where one would do fine.

Revali was going to fight more but his quest caught up to him. “What are you doing here?” He asked.

“There was a Hinox slowly migrating closer to civilization. I dealt with it.”

Revali wiped his face with a wing. “Fine. What I had meant was less what are you doing here, and more so what aren’t you doing somewhere else?”

Link looked at him cautiously. “I resigned.”

“I know,” Revali snapped. “And why in the green fields of Hyrule would you do that?”

Link's blue eyes sparkled in the firelight mysteriously. "I'm a little surprised. I didn't think you cared for me too much-"

"Don't worry, you were correct. I don't. The others do for some... some..." he paused to find the right adjective.

"Asinine?" Link asked with a slight smile and a thousand-yard stare.

He readjusted his wings. "Yes- that will do well. For some ASININE reason. The princess is pacing herself to an early grave worrying about your safety."

Link nodded, almost as if he were agreeing with Revali's opinion to some extent. He looked anywhere but at the Rito it seemed, so different to the champion he had known who never backed down from a challenge and would hold his eye contact unaffected through his verbal barrages. “It's not like I never thought about returning to Zelda's side when all was said and done... it seemed like the easiest option, I wouldn't ever have to think about what to do next but... I guess I just couldn’t muster up any desire to stay.”

Revali stared at him and Link finally added, “I like it here.”

“In Akkala?” The rito asked in disbelief.

“No, uh,” the Hylian paused to piece together his thoughts. “The wild… it feels like I can breathe here.”

“Well I’m glad you’re feeling light and liberated,” Revali said with unconcealed snark. “But there are people that I had thought were important to you that you are hurting. People that even I care too much about to let you just go off on your way to prance around in flower fields.”

“There’s nothing I can do for them that won’t hurt them further,” Link replied cryptically.

“Fine.” Revali scoffed. “I will at least tell Zelda you are ALIVE, there’s no point dragging you back kicking and screaming.”

Link sighed in relief.

“BUT,” Revali said. “You are coming to see Mipha.”

Linked tensed and Revali scoffed. “What are you going to avoid her forever because of a single proposal?”

Link laughed without a hint of amusement. “Huh, so you know about that... I don't know, maybe...” unconsciously, the hero slowly wrapped his arms around his legs and rocked a little in a gesture that finally betrayed his youth and Revali had to admit that maybe the prospect of marriage was understandably sprung on him a little too soon. He was younger than himself by at least a couple of years and the idea of finding a female back in the village and settling down even at his age made him... decidedly unsettled.

Still, it didn't fully excuse Link's behaviour towards their fellow champion. “You owe her an answer.”

“I mean,” Link said and then sighed. “I just don’t feel like I’m in a position where I could give a proper one… as the person she used to know.”

“Don’t be so dramatic! That’s my thing!” Revali snapped. Clearly the calamity had changed him a little but this was just a histrionic excuse to not take responsibility. “You can play the lingering role of hero all you want and run around slaying every Hinox in Hyrule but we both know you’re just running away. You’re the one that wooed her, you’re the one who’s got to own up to it whether it be accepting her offer or telling her to move on!” He paused and then added for good measure: "and she will you know. Move on that is. You're hardly that special."

Link glared. “I didn’t WOOE her.” Then he looked a little uncertain at his own statement, his eyes staring out at the falling rain vacantly. “At least… I don’t think I would have.”

“You don’t think?” Revali rolled his eyes.

The knight was hunched, even his long ears seemed to droop. His fire had been forgotten and between a gap in the roof spilling water, and a couple more vicious gusts of wind, it was beginning to dwindle out. The hylian made no effort to save his work.

“I… spent a lot of time after I heard about her proposal trying to stare at her statue and gather up some sort of feeling of… love I guess," Link finally admitted. "I wanted to have loved her. I really HOPED that maybe I had loved her.” He stared at his thick animal-skin boots. “I felt so uncomfortable with that armour on, it felt so HEAVY with the… implications of what it stood for.”

Revali sighed in exasperation, “you love her or you don’t. Why is this so hard?”

“I just is,” Link snapped, “and anyway, you’re one to talk about running away… when was the last time you visited Rito village?”

Revali’s eyes narrowed. “It’s not nearly the same. As soon as this rain ceases, we’re going to the domain.”

Link scoffed.

“She’s not just some random girl giving you unwanted advances,” Revali said as the fire finally died out completely, another poor victim of Link's inattention.  
“You’ve known her too long and too well to reduce her to that. If you continue to treat her this way I WILL put an arrow through your heart- vanquisher of evil or not.”

Even from the corner of his eye, he could see Link lower his gaze again in shame.

It was a long time to sit in cold and silence until the rain finally ceased. Link never moved to set up a new fire to stave off some of the springtime chill- even when all of the curious little hairs on his body stood up in protest and his skin bumped like a plucked pheasant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is so addictive to write, I keep wanting to add in fluff but I am resisting as best I can. It doesn't make sense yet XD I think a bunch of things are going to come to light at the domain.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Confused brid. Happy fish.

“look away,” the knight ordered.

Revali scoffed. “Why would I do that, are you thinking of running?” He asked.

“I’m thinking of changing.”

Oh.

The rito took one last up and down glance at the hylian in his barbarian armour. What loathsome featherless skin. This was for the best, if he came at Mipha looking like that, she'd have a heart attack.

“I can’t imagine there’s much more for me to see that isn’t already out in the open.” he commented dryly.

Link glared. “Just turn.”

Revali complied, although thought the request odd. The little time he had spent at the castle training grounds back in the day suggested there wasn’t any shyness between hylian males and semi-nudity.

He turned back only when he heard the boy lift up his pack to go.

He was back in his champion’s tunic.

When he really looked at it, the shirt never had done him much justice. Very underwhelming for a hero’s armour. It was loose by design, hiding those toned muscles his other apparel more generously showed off. He looked so much younger and inexperienced. He remembered briefly that Zelda hadn’t liked the knight much when she made it- perhaps its unflattering fit was intentional.

“Well, then,” Link sighed. “I guess we should go.”

It was an agonizingly longer trip back since Link of course, was land-bound.

The rito could have flown him on his back to speed up the process, but THAT wasn’t going to happen.

Instead, he flew ahead, forced to constantly double back and circle him impatiently. 

Very impatiently.

Eventually, he landed down next to him and walked as well, sick of flying and getting nowhere. The Akkala plains looked to expand forever from this angle. One could only see the massive escarpment the domain sat upon as a light grey hugging the horizon.

“Well this is going to take a while," He said. "I see now why it took you so long to free all the divine beasts.”

Link rolled his eyes.

“I just hope Mipha, even with her extended Zora lifespan, is still alive by the time we get there.”

“It should only take a day,” Link replied. "We'll go over and not around so that will save a lot of time."

“A day,” Revali scoffed. “Only a day. It must be so difficult to have those stubby little arms. I of course could fly over and be there in minutes.”

“Is that so?” Link asked blandly.

“It would be simple.”

Another rain cloud began to darken the skies over them. 

“Again?!” Revali asked in disbelief as if scolding the small drop that landed on his wing would cause it to leap back into the sky and tell the cloud to recede. 

“Well you better get to it then if you don’t want to get too wet.” Link said.

“I beg your-“

The former knight snatched the sheikah plate from Revali and winked salaciously. “See you there, asshole.”

A second later he disappeared in tendrils of glowing blue light and a torrent of rain fell, entirely soaking the unimpressed rito head-to-foot.

When he got to the domain, Link was already well situated by the general store, talking animatedly with Sidon and a few of the guards.

“Amazing! Incredible!” He heard Sidon exclaim as he approached. “To get through that castle while it was so filled with guardians! You truly are the greatest of hylians dear friend! Your bravery knows no limits!”

Link scratched the back of his head in embarrassment at the barrage of compliments. He noticed Revali and smirked.

Goddesses! All that time he had wished to see some sort of expression on that petulant face and of course, this is what he got! 

“Did you take a swim before getting here?” He asked Revali almost coyly.

Sidon turned in interest. “Fascinating! To be able to fly, walk and swim? I envy you rito champion!”

Revali made sure to catch Link in the spray when he flapped the wet from his wings but the champion only laughed good-naturedly as he flinched away.

“You wouldn’t be alone,” he said tersely. “Most do.”

“I couldn’t believe you managed to find him so soon, you truly are as fast in flight as my sister always used to tell me in stories!”

Maybe he did like this man after all.

“Of course,” Revali preened. “I am a master of the sky, I can easily find one measly lumbering ape.”

Link crossed his arms as if offended but still looked somewhat amused. “The amazing thing about Revali is how humble he is," Link explained.

“An amazing trait in such an esteemed warrior,” Sidon commented.

Maybe Link had felt a little bad for Sidon’s gullibility. He put a hand on his arm comfortingly and smiled up at him affectionately. This made Revali feel… something. It was hard to say what.

“Is that Link at long last?” A gentle voice asked.

Any mirth Link was feeling seemed to drain away and he let his hand fall to his side.

“Sister!” Sidon greeted cheerfully.

Mipha’s eyes sparkled as she made the rest of the way down from the stairs of the upper landing. “Link!” She said in happy disbelief, “You have come back to us at last!” She tried to reach out for him but he instinctively stepped back, and then rightly looked very apologetic for the rebuff.

“Ah, I’m sorry.” she said stepping back and glancing dejectedly at her hands. “I am… happy to see you again. I hope it wasn’t I who kept you away.”

He gave her a pained look. “No I’m sorry. I don’t know why I did that. I came here to see you actually… I know I have delayed this talk and I apologize for that too.”

There was an awkward silence as he tried to find the right words and finally, chose to just wordlessly rifle through his bag and procure a folded piece of blue armour.  
“For many reasons… I can’t accept. I’m sorry for the times I was forced to wear it on my travels while not being able to return your feelings.”

Mipha let him place the garment in her hands, too stunned silent to react.

Then… she laughed, her voice like a soft tinkling bell and it was the boys' turn to be surprised. The guards had mysteriously vanished in this time, seeming to have snuck away when they sensed the rocky waters first approaching.

“Tell me this isn’t why you’ve been hiding?” She asked.

“I-“ Link said and then he blushed despite himself. “Maybe a little? I know that paints me in a more pathetic light."

She handed the armour back to him still softly chuckling. “I caught up on what happened to you during your long sleep but I hadn’t considered that of course you had forgotten that day too.”

“Excuse me?” Link asked.

“I confessed to you before the calamity and have already been turned down,” she said. "There was no response left for you to give."

“Oh,” Link said dumbly.

Revali was absolutely floored by the stupidity he had just wasted so much time on. 'He forgot'. Someone give him back his precious day!

Now Link was laughing a bit, but it was an empty sound. “Well then I guess I’m sorry for back then. It’s complicated- I wish I could have loved you. I worked so hard to try to work myself up to getting those feelings but… there are some things about me that I just can’t-“

Mipha put a webbed finger to his lips.

“I know about that too,” she said.

The colour drained from Link’s face. “You do?”

Mipha sighed. “You seem to really not be understanding just how close we were. You told me EVERYTHING that day. We cried together in each other’s arms for quite a long time after that. It’s a bitter-sweet memory that I hold in my heart to this day. It had been so long since you had let yourself emote to me. I’m sorry for the stress my advances had caused you both then and now. It meant a lot that in the end you had shared such an important secret.”

She took one of his hands and he smiled weakly. “I don’t think any less of you for it. I beg you to know this,” she urged, “and I think the world has changed since then… for the better in some ways. I’d say the status quo crumbled when castle town and the hyrulean court did. In those hopeless times, people got less concerned about how others were finding their comfort and who they let warm their beds.”

Revali flapped his wings up in defeat. This was the most cryptic and confusing conversation he had ever heard.

She handed him back the armour. “As long as this will be of use to you, I want you to have it. It is of no use to me.”

Link took it with an awed expression. “Thank you…” He frowned with the most forlorned crinkle of his blue eyes. “I had heard we were close. I'm starting to understand that better now. I’m so sorry.”

Revali was taken entirely aback with his words, even more jostled to the core when the Hylian began to cry.

Mipha gave him an understanding smile and wiped at his tears. “Hush my most cherished friend. What matters is we are both here now.”

“Why did I forget? Why can I only seem to get memories back of Zelda?” He asked weakly.

She soothed him a little more and as much as Revali wanted to pitch his piece in and question everything that had just taken place, any words he could jumble together died in his mouth and sunk like stones into his heart. Sidon was unnaturally quiet as well. 

Just what exactly had happened to Link?

Finally, he managed to clear his throat and the two seemed to remember that they had an audience.

Link wiped at his face, almost pulling off looking stoic if it weren't for his red eyes and Mipha just looked… happy.

The only hint of the breakdown that just happened was how the two continued to hold hands as they turned to face him. Mipha's thumb stroked his knuckles comfortingly.

“I… um… I don’t remember anything.”

What?

“Anything?” Revali questioned.

“I lost every memory I had in those one hundred years I was sleeping. I’m only slowly getting a select few back.”

The rito's shoulders slacked. “So… you didn’t remember any of us?”

Link shook his head. “I didn’t want to say anything when I met each of you on the divine beasts. It seemed too tragic. I just didn’t think there was anything crueller I could say to a dead person than that they weren’t going to be remembered by their surviving comrade. No matter what I said, I thought I might betray how I’d changed to someone who knew me so I just stayed quiet and let you all say your pieces… then you came back and all that foggy past I had been ignoring is now right back up in the forefront and a little bit harder to step away from.”

Revali just stared at him.

Sidon finally chirped in. “Well… I’m not too sure what all just happened but I’m getting the sense that things have finally been straightened out! Come now you both! Join us for supper! We can celebrate this joyful reunion of friends!”

Revali usually would usually snap 'we're not friends' here, but the statement seemed to ring even truer now. They were... nothing. Strangers even. 

Link let Mipha and Sidon usher him away and the rito took a few extra seconds before he began to follow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love Mipha so much. The zora domain arc had such a big impact. It was the first place I went because I wanted to see Hudson in Tarrey Town and got caught by Sidon along the way and it was just so heart-wrenching. Then of course, since she was the first champion I saved there was still the thought that maybe she was alive but captive like with Zelda :(


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The story of Link.

When he first woke up, it was to head numbing emptiness and a voice he could no longer place urging him to move.

He had been floating in a contraption with luminescent blue liquid. The first sounds he really registered was the sloshing of solution. The machine whirred in an unfamiliar way and the liquid drained until he was left laying in an empty tub.

The room was full of debris. Too much debris. It was strange how he knew something was off about that when he clearly didn't know anything. He could tell that no one had been here in this place for a very, very long time. Which of course was weird again because obviously, he must have.

Dust hung suspended in the dark room.

The voice was back, and it told him his name was Link, and that he needed to hurry. Then it led him through the dark and abandoned ruins.

He should have been more confused. He should have been scared and lonely. There should have been a gaping hole in his heart where he had locked away all of his most cherished memories, a dull ache that indicated that he had lost something.

But there wasn’t and he was feeling… good.

As he emerged from the resurrection chamber and stumbled out to the cliff's edge, overlooking the vast expanse of forests, mountains and ruins, he felt nothing except an overwhelming itch to explore every corner. The world was laid out in front of him and he felt his entire body buzz with a child-like wonder.

\---

There was an old man in the plateau with him.

A voice in his head told him to be weary. It wasn’t the voice that told him to wake up. It was his own. His own intuition and instinct seemed to be the only thing in his mind that held fast through the test of time. It was the oddest thing since the man was nothing but kind. When they first met, he offered him a baked apple and the baffling thought struck him that: ‘there is no such thing as a free meal’.

It made him wonder a little bit what kind of person he had been.

He spent a lot of that first week exploring the plateau, mostly on his own except when he greeted the old man in passing. Which was often. He passed him a lot. The guy seemed to appear anywhere he went. ‘By coincidence or design?’

Link hated those thoughts. The old man did nothing but help him navigate through this new and bewildering world. He lent him tools, showed him how to use a cooking pot and how to follow a recipe. He even gave him a warm doublet.

A day or so into the whole 'being alive' thing, Link noticed a rock oddly sitting on top of a large tree. He climbed up and inspected. This was when he met his first korok- a tiny forest child. From then on he had a bit too much fun scouring the landscape of the great plateau, lifting every rock, climbing every tree and pausing at every geographical oddity in the seemingly largest ever game of hide and seek.

He didn’t know who he was then,

And even though life was simple, it might have been the best days he would ever have.

\---

The old man began to send him to shrines, he urged him to bring him back the spirit orbs and Link was immediately suspicious and uneasy again.

The shrines were fun. He liked puzzles as was evident with his games with the koroks and these were a little more complicated and challenging, but the prize for solving them seemed too valuable. He didn't know what spirit orbs were but he understood the lengths that these 10,000-year-old monks went to in order to protect them. It felt... wrong handing them over to the old man, especially went he didn't understand his motives.

\---

It turned out the man never wanted them for himself. He’d been trying to help Link the whole time. He was a ghost, the ghost of a king in fact, and he told Link that he had a great destiny to fulfil. He explained that the world was wrought with the blight of calamity and that most of Link’s friends had died trying to stop the evil entity named Ganon. The voice in his head (the girl's one who woke him up) was Princess Zelda, the woman he had pledged to devote his entire life and soul to as her knight.

All Link really thought of all this was that his first instincts were right, There WAS no such thing as a free meal.

Honoured just as much by the begrudging willingness to pay for the baked apples and the cooking lessons as by his oath to the princess he no longer knew, he grabbed his new paraglider and took flight to the great beyond.

\---

He finally met real people. Ones who weren't secretly ghosts.

It was… fun to approach a stranger and leave them a friend. He was ever so curious all of the time to learn everything he could about everyone he met.  
The information he would incidentally get along the way would often lead him off into little side quests or sometimes even to more shrines.

He met a few girls on the road here and there, mostly in the stables who made it clear that they had more than a passing interest in him and he was confused because he felt nothing except maybe a little uncomfortable by their advances.

There were stories from one hundred years ago that the mothers would tell their daughters at night about the knight sworn to the beautiful princess and their eternal love.

If those stories were any bit true, maybe that was why he couldn’t bring himself to hold some other girl, even if only for the night.

When he met Impa, another little weight of responsibility settled in his heart as she further drilled home his duties to him.

He did his absolute best to ignore the way her granddaughter stared at him with flushed cheeks and awe-struck eyes.

He was told later that if he went to the locations of the pictures Zelda had taken in the sheikah plate, he might remember her and the time they shared. At first, it was fun finding clues in the images to pinpoint their exact spots in the world.

He didn’t enjoy the actual remembering part though.

He couldn’t recognize the person he used to be within himself. The Link of the past never spoke or seemed to react to anything, which was annoying to no end because while he could remember the scenes as they played out, he couldn’t remember the emotions he had felt in the moment or what he’d been thinking and he gave himself no context clues in his actions.

It was surprising to know how much Zelda had resented him at the beginning. The later memories somehow didn't make him feel any better as those looks of hate slowly morphed to love. The stories hadn't been wrong about her being a peerless beauty among hylians, but his heart still doesn’t seem to stir at the sight of her smile or the sideways glances she’d cast his way.

He became even more confused and conflicted as he finally journeyed to each of the towns to free their divine beasts and he learned more about his former friends.  
First was Mipha, and that one was HARD. In the one scrap of memory, he had of her, where she tenderly healed his wounds, he wanted to yell at the Link in the memory to say SOMETHING. Anything to give him a clue about how he had once felt during that intimate moment.

He tried for a long time to feel a spark of attraction while staring at her statue. Anything that would absolve him of the guilt of wearing her courtship gift. He thought he felt it for a second, but it was just a little jolt when Sidon snuck up behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

When he met her ghost, he couldn’t bring himself to speak. She didn’t urge him too either, accustomed to the him of the past he supposed.

She eyed his zora armour with some surprise and he felt burning shame.

The next two champions weren’t as hard… emotionally that was. The current him didn’t feel that much kinship with them though. They didn't seem that close to him if he was remembering properly, but it was hard to say with only one memory of each to go off of. He wisely didn’t speak to their ghosts either.

It took the final divine beast Medoh for certain questions to click into place about himself.

He had been talking to the wife of the warrior Teba who gestured to Revali’s landing and the memory hit him like a brick. He had been standing on the deck watching Medoh fly through the sky when a gust of wind nearly knocked him back.

Revali entered the scene erupting upward from a swirl of air, corkscrewing towards the clouds. When his ascent slowed, he let himself fall and land gracefully on the platform, his perfect posture not once broken on the impact.

Beautiful, Link thought.  
Oh.  
OH.

And everything made terrible sense.

Revali's voice was velvety and very distinctly MALE and Link could feel a little knot in his chest as he listened to the cadence.

He was the only champion to wield a divine beast not of noble birth but he carried himself so, in a proud and somewhat dashing manner.

Then Link actually paid attention to what he was saying and he proceeded to remember that, despite his handsome figure, Revali was a total ass.

_____________________________________________________________  
[Present Day]

He got up early as he often did. The sun was barely peeking over the horizon. He supposed there was something about sleeping for a century that stopped him from really needing to now.

Revali was still fast asleep in the waterbed across the inn, an indistinct pile of blue-grey feathers.

He tried not to laugh. Not so dignified now.

While Link had gotten up before the rito, he hadn't managed to rise before Mipha. She caught him sneaking out of the inn, pack in hand.

“Going so soon?” She asked.

He was quiet.

“Don’t do that anymore,” She said and he looked at her in surprise.

“You may think you are no longer anything like the Link I knew but the truth is we were friends long before you became chained to destiny and the Master Sword. You are more like that Link I grew up with now than you ever were during your servitude to Zelda. You used to love going on little adventures and dedicating entire days out in the wilderness doing delightfully frivolous things- like when you caught fifty fireflies for my birthday celebration."

This was a memory he was actually glad to hear about. "Did I really? Now that sounds like me," he grinned.

"There was no end to the pain you caused the adults. Have you heard about shield surfing?" She suddenly asked, "I hear it's very popular now."

"Yeah, I've tried it out," he said.

"I'm pretty sure you invented that, you used to steal the guard's Zora shields to ride down the twisting water paths of the domain," she giggled. "We had so much fun."

"It sounded fun," Link agreed and then hesitantly smiled at her. "Maybe... we could go on another adventure sometime. It's a whole new world out there and it's not all bad."

He had never seen her smile so brightly and then... a glimmer of mischief he hadn't expected her capable of crossed her eyes. "I would be delighted, that is if you don't get too caught up with a certain champion of the aerial arts."

"Please," he said dismissively. "While I do enjoy the company of men, I'm not quite THAT desperate." Still, he took a second glance back at the inn. "Although he wouldn't be so bad if he shut his beak once and a while."

Mipha giggled uncontrollably and he rubbed her back and this time the contact didn’t feel so horribly wrong.

She sobered up and gave him a guilty frown. “I- I really feel as if I shouldn’t say this. It’s possibly the cruellest and most selfish thought I’ve ever had.”

"What?" He asked.

“I’m… happy.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it,” she agreed. “The world ended for so many people one hundred years ago, you poor hylians were hit the worst. People suffered so incredibly much in ways we’ll never know- and Zelda, she lost everything… but I’m just so happy that you're here being you again.”

Link had guiltily had this thought before too. That he belonged more here in this post-calamity world than he had in the old one.

"You were so young when you had heard the voice of the sword calling to you. I was so scared when you disappeared into the lost woods for a week! Then your family had to move to castle town and the next time I saw you, you were already changed by that... horrid place. If I'm being truthful, I had always known there was no romantic chemistry between us, but I just wanted to get you away from there when everything was over and the armour was the only way I could think of."

"You're a good friend," he said and he reached out to squeeze her hand. For a moment he could have sworn he saw the flash of a memory of a tiny little zora girl chasing after him.

"And I will continue to be. Come back soon so that we may make new memories together. I want to fill your heart up to the brim as you did mine with every kind of moment from the silliest to the most mundane."

"I promise," Link said and then he paused. "Oh yeah, and give Revali this, he'll track me down to the edges of Hyrule if I leave with it." Link handed her the sheikah slate.

"I have a feeling he will anyway," she said.

"Why?" Link asked in confusion.

"Do you really think he could allow his rival to be out there with no memory of how 'utterly amazing and masterful' he is? He is going to be so upset when he wakes up and you aren't here," she explained.

"Well then tell him happy hunting."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy mother of grammar and spelling mistakes these last two chapters- I fixed those up a little bit. It's like I don't even proof read. No doubt I will read this chap in a day and find a million things wrong too. Sorry that's just my process XD It sucks to be an early reader on my stories.
> 
> I've had someone text me 'happy hunting' before when I was trying to find them and I was LIVID. Revali is going to flip. Honestly a lot of his trigger words are from personal experience. I had a boss go OFF on me before when I answered the phone "oh hey", that rant I wrote felt very familiar.
> 
> Side note- was anyone else HIGH KEY paranoid about everyone at the beginning of the game? I was so ready for the old man, the fairies even Sidon to just fully turn around and be like "HAHA PSYCHE I am the bad guy!" My suspicious nature was finally justified with all of those 'travellers'


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Revali is heading back to the castle, but seems to be lolly gagging a bit

“He what?”

“He… left this morning and told me to hand you this,” Mipha returned the slate to Revali’s possession.

The Rito stared at the slate dumbly. He just left? An unsatisfying taste lingered in his mouth. He hadn’t even been able to ask more about the whole ‘lost memory’ thing. He had wanted to question Link on how much exactly the ‘bits and pieces’ he remembered were. He had resolved to interrogate him all morning if he had to given how stubborn the Hylian could be about offering up any information about himself.

“Did he say anything else?” He asked.

“Just that…” she glanced away, “you were welcome to seek him out again if you so wished.” It was amazing how she could be both the best secret keeper and the world’s worst liar at the same time. He narrowed his eyes at her in suspicion and she rightfully looked nervous. Now the frustrating thing of course was that, while he could tell she was lying, he couldn’t tell what she was lying about.

He reminded himself that he wasn’t supposed to care in the first place. Sure in the past he had been desperate to hear the hero speak but now that he was finally ‘graced with the honour’, he had learned that very little of what Link had to say held much value.

Still, there had be a reason she was omitting the truth. “He said that?” He asked.

Mipha nodded.

“In those words?”

Now she looked nervous.

“Mipha,” He said sternly, “What exactly did he say?”

Mipha sighed and glanced away. “He said… if you want to find him again…happy hunting.”

Revali’s feathers ruffled up all at once. HAPPY. HUNTING. As if he was worth the effort! “Dumb ape,” he muttered under his breath. “Clearly he must have lost his memory if he thinks me just some lowly scout for Zelda! Even more so if he thinks I’d do it again for my own pleasure!” He wheeled around and gave Mipha a chilling stare with his electric green eyes. “If he returns to the domain, I would very much appreciate it if you could elucidate to him that I would be just fine never seeing that stupid monkey visage again and that I was immensely grateful that he made wise for once and chose not to spoil my breakfast this morning with the sight of him.”

“Of course, Revali,” Mipha said and he could tell immediately she would say none of that to Link. Disappointing.

He exhaled a bit of that hot air and looked to the skies. A clear day finally on this confounded journey. He supposed his quest had been completed- nothing left to do than fly straight back to Zelda and let her know that her beloved knight was doing just fine out in the wilderness- Something they shouldn’t have been so surprised about given how the simple-minded baboon was certainly a few steps behind in the Hylian evolutionary ladder. The missing 'link' so to speak.

“Well I’ve kept Zelda waiting long enough,” he sighed, finding it harder than he expected to leave.

“Come back soon,” Mipha smiled.

“I suppose I should be a little more generous with regaling friends with my company,” He agreed slyly.

“Take care Revali.”

With that, he took flight and the nearby zora all stopped to watch with slight envy as he maneuvered his way up into the sky, catching each invisible gust of wind with an expert’s wing.

It was a straight shot back to Central Hyrule, it would hardly take him more than half a day. He could have technically been eating lunch in the castle if he so wished. Instead though, he chose to land at the woodland stable- a small encampment a stone’s throw away from the river that separated the Eldin province from Hyrule Field.  
It had a surprisingly nice outdoor patio compared to some of the other stables he had seen and he figured he was at least entitled to one more-or-less pleasant meal out in the open air before he had to return to the bustle of activity that was Zelda’s reconstruction efforts.

The ruins of the castle loomed behind the rock formation that split the river. There really was still so much further to go. It looked so different now that it wasn’t coated in malice. The purple-black ooze had hidden, to an extent, how far the building had fallen into disrepair. Chunks of spire were missing and in the light of day, the broken stonework and caved-in roofs looked nearly unrepairable.

The Hylians were an optimistic bunch though and seemed convinced that they could rebuild it as well as all of Castletown within a few years. It was more surprising how many were so willing to let Zelda rise back to power as their queen. A hundred years ago, her family was all but disgraced and despised by their people. If Ganon hadn't happened, for certain there was still to be a revolution brewing in their natural lifetime.

He supposed now that the calamity was over, these scattered people just wanted a leader to unite them back into the kingdom of their fairytales. Well whatever, alls well that ends well.

He diverted his attention back to lunch. Being the expert bowman he was, it was hardly any effort to catch a duck floating in the pond out back.

He took his catch to the cooking pot and idly thought that if Link had been there, he would have made some sort of joking comment about his decision to dine on poultry. Snarky little thing.

As he sat at one of the outdoor tables to peck at his make-shift meat skewer, he found himself pulling back out the sheikah slate, thoughts of the Hylian boy still in his mind.

Again, he ended up staring at that stupid skalhorse imitation, this time with slightly more… fondness? Goodness he must really be lonely in this new Hyrule.

This time, he let himself scroll all the way to the photo of Rito village. There were two Ritos standing on his favourite landing. Likely a father and son given their distinct shared eagle-type plumage and it was those colourings that caused a rock to lodge in his heart.

The older rito looked exactly like his grandfather, but also so completely different. Tal had grown up next to Revali practically his entire life. They had hatched only a day apart after all. Even though Tal had been an eagle rito which earned him a towering stature, he had always been a gangly thing. The others in town always joked that there was less meat on him than a crane. The poor man could barely lift a bow.

His descendant in the picture clearly did not have the same problem. He had the muscle of a warrior, the bulk in his wings a clear indicator of the time he spent training.

He scrolled on assuming nothing could lift his mood after that grim reminder of just how much time had passed.

Of course, that was before he knew that the next photo would be of Link in a full Gerudo vai outfit, complete with a veil. If he'd been chewing his meal at the time, he would have choked.

Link must have had someone else take the picture, he was standing on a high rock somewhere in the desert and even though his face was covered with the delicate cloth, red ears indicated his intense embarrassment.

In the following picture, he seemed to have gotten over that initial bashfulness, eyes sparkling with mischief in the center of what could only be Gerudo Town given the elaborate palace in the background. Urbosa would either howl with laughter or have Link's head. Frankly either way he felt the urge to show her the photo.

He surprisingly made for a rather attractive woman- for a Hylian that was. Actually, he looked a lot like a muscley-Zelda. Back in his days of being her guard, he could have made a rather convincing body-double.

It was a little disappointing when the next photo wasn't a continuation of the desert-series. It looked like… the inside of a house of some sort? The walls and floor seemed to be made of the same unfinished wood. The more he looked, the more confusing the architecture started to look. It was a perfectly cylindrical room.

"Ah, it’s that contraption again.”

Revali all but dropped the slate right there, fumbling it between his wings.

“Sorry to frighten you stranger,” A man laughed. He appeared to be sheikah, which was unusual because not many chose to leave Kakariko Village anymore. The man himself was also a little strange, with sakura tattoos running all up his exposed torso and down one arm. His characteristically white hair was shaped into the form of a paintbrush on top of his head.

He pointed to the plate. “I just couldn’t help but recognize that device, there was a young man who used to carry one exactly like it around.”

It was, in all honesty, a little sad that not even the older generation of shekah could recognize his own clan’s technology anymore. They had definitely been the furthest to fall in one hundred years. He wondered if the last remnants of their advanced civilization would die out with Purah and Robbie, or if that was even a bad thing given all that happened. The guardians were maybe too much power for one side to hold.

"You mean Link I suppose," Revali said.

"Yes! That was his name! He used to seek me out all of the time to help him figure out the locations of different pictures he had in there!"

“Link asked you about the pictures,” Revali said in confusion, "Why?"

"I'd wondered that for a while too, he was searching for the locations with so much purpose I figured it had to be for more than simple sightseeing. He eventually admitted that he had lost some of his memories in an accident and that going to those places helped him remember things. Crazy isn't it? Feels like a good story for a book!" The man chatted on. "Of course, I guess that book would have a pretty unsatisfying end given how quickly he quit his search."

"He gave up on getting his memory back?" Revali asked in surprise.

The man shrugged. "Guess he didn't like what he was remembering."

“Well old man, it sounds like you could have been useful a few days ago,” Revali sighed. He’d never managed to have Link’s luck.

The man looked over his shoulder at the plate. “Well that’s interesting."

“Is it?” Revali asked in a bored tone, not really in the mood for prolonging his time with the strange company now that he couldn't be of any help.

“It’s a house inside a tree,” the man said. “A living tree by the looks of it. There are a number of massive ancient hollowed out stumps around the border of Hyrule Field but I haven’t ever seen a modern tree big enough to have all of that room inside.”

When Revali looked closer it did look like the inside of a tree. So that's what it was.

“Actually,” The man said in thought. “When you look down at the Great Hyrule Forest from the mountains, you can see a massive tree in the center- but no one can get to it. I’ve tried a few times but I always end up lost in the woods.”

The Great Hyrule Forest… the place Link had supposedly got fairyed away into as a child before he emerged with the sword that sealed the darkness.

The man eventually shuffled off to leave Revali to the rest of his meal, now cold and less appetizing.

He scarfed it down and recollected all of his belongings.

Back to Zelda.

Back to the monotony that was castle town.

Yet he found himself looking out at the forest to the North of the castle instead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no idea why but the other day I got this image in my head of a Revalink comic strip in the style of the Brooklin 99 cold opening where Rosa says Captain Holt is just pent up and needs to bone his husband. Since I can't draw that well, here's a script from inside my head:
> 
> Zelda: Revali! Over this past year we have all come to bond as a team, yet I fear you are still too harsh on Link. I wish for you to talk over your differences for the sake of team unity.  
> Urbosa (in the background, casual): Never mind that, I think they just need to bone already.  
> Revali: Pardon me?  
> Urobosa: You need to bone.  
> Revali: Hhhhhooooow DARE YOU URBOSA! I AM THE PRIDE OF THE RITOS!  
> Revali eight minutes later: BOOOOONNNNNEEEEE  
> Twelve minutes later: AND I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW WE ARE A PROUD AND NOBLE FOLK WHO DO NOT JUST 'BONE' LIKE YOU BARBARIANS WITH YOUR PRIMATIVE APE-LIKE URGES. NO. WE HAVE AN ELEGANT AND REFINED COURTSHIP PROCESS LEADING UP TO A GRACEFUL MERGING OF FLESH AND FEATHER-  
> twenty one minutes later: BOOOOOooOONE!  
> Thirty minutes later: Don't you EVER suggest that I would even consider that buffoon to be on the calibre of one I would allow to warm my hammock, or frankly ever speak to me like that again! [storms off]  
> Zelda: WHY would you say that?  
> Urbosa: The boy was pent up and now he knows.
> 
> Later that day Revali is seen emerging from the woods, walking passed them briskly  
> Zelda: Oh Revali have you spoken yet with-  
> Revali [not breaking his stride]: No need, it's all good.  
> Urbosa: Did you-  
> Revali- Yep.  
> Link is seen in the distance emerging from the woods as well, red-faced, twigs in hair.  
> Urbosa: See what happened was your champions had se-  
> Zelda: OKAY.
> 
> Consider these note a mini-fic I guess. (I don't think this is what they are made for XD) Thank you for reading I HATE writing transition chapters so this was SO hard to get through, I hope now the writer's block will subside.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Revali goes to the Lost Woods and has, as expected, the absolute worst time.

GODDESSDAMN THIS FOREST.

Why hadn’t he just returned to the castle? Perhaps it was his sinking suspicion that once he was back again, he’d never leave. Or maybe he just didn’t want to and that was FINE. What was the point in wings if you couldn’t just go wherever you wanted on light whims like this?

Well not WHEREVER it would seem.

He had tried three different times from three different angles to reach the center of the forest from the sky but each time he was above those freaky dead trees the mist just rose up and engulfed him, somehow dropping him unceremoniously at the entranceway to the forest. Each time, an eerie child’s giggle would ring out, mocking him for his efforts.

This angered him intensely. Yet another place that wouldn’t accept him. Somewhere ‘only the hero’ was allowed. Link sure had it nice with how amenable the whole world was to him and only him. He still firmly believed that Calamity Ganon could have been stopped years ago by another brave soul if it hadn’t been for how the world forbid anyone from intervening with the prophecy which stated that ‘only the chosen hero’ could do it.

Only the hero could enter the shrines. Only the hero could lift the sword. Only the hero could save the day. Now here was an ENTIRE GREAT FOREST that existed only for Link and his dumb sword.

He wasn’t going to accept that.

He wasn’t going to let a bunch of trees tell him that he wasn’t just as worthy to stand between them. He wasn’t sure what had originally set him out to these woods but he certainly knew what was keeping him there now.

He was getting through one way or another.

Fine. The forest wanted him to walk? He could walk.

It did feel a little weird though. Telling a Rito to get somewhere by foot was, after all, was like telling a Hylian or Gerudo that they could only get somewhere by crawling.

There were a series of torches that lit a route through the dense fog.

He of all people of course noticed the unnatural air currents. Each time he reached one flame, the wind would shift towards the next. So when the fires got further and further apart until they could no longer be seen from one to the next, he got the hint to just follow the breeze.

It was a long and winding path, his forfeiture to the whims of the wind allowed him to look over his surroundings a little better instead of just train his eyes on distant embers. It was some horror show alright. Somewhere along the path, the thin scraggly trees had given way to thick monstrosities peering out at him from within the swirling, spiralling mist.

They were all dark, knotted, gnarled and leafless. Every single one had a massive gaping maw carved into its side with two tiny little holes on top giving each of the trees a nightmarish face that was either screaming, laughing or manically doing a cross of both. It was some sick joke for sure. It was hard to figure out what kind of psychopath would put so much time and effort into the pointless endeavour.

He had felt eyes on him the entire way through but only when he started to question the sanity of whoever was residing in the woods did this start to leave a chill under his skin. The feathers at the tip of his wings were flexed and more than ready to quickly draw his Great Eagle Bow if needed. Something he did end up doing a few times, instantly killing a couple of rambunctious but innocent deer here and there that were startled by his sudden appearance in the fog. He had more meat for dinner than he knew what to do with.

This was definitely not the pleasant forest hike he had been envisioning on this impromptu vacation.

Eventually, thankfully, the mist cleared, and the forest turned green and Revali let a breath out he hadn’t even known he was holding. A fallen log served as a tunnel to the most lush forest he had ever seen. The massive tree that he had originally set out towards stood in the center but the trees all around it were by no means small either. Massive root systems and long low-hanging branches made an intricate maze at ground surface. His talons sunk into wet sphagnum moss.

The overlapping layers of dense leaf canopies high up above blotted out a lot of natural sunlight and so the area he stood in was mostly lit by glowing blue nightshade and floating specks of what seemed like pure magic.

It was then that he spotted the Hylian.

Link was sitting under a mature elm tree. While he had forgotten about being a knight, he still could cut a rather gallant figure, leaning back on the trunk, one leg propped up, boot braced against the lush earth.

Gallant sure, but again oddly feminine by Hylian standards. He did have a few select features that even put Zelda to shame; long doe-like eyelashes that shouldn't have paired as well as they did with his hawkish eyes, angular facial features... Admittedly he was as close to Rito beauty standards as his species could get. If only he had plumage, he might actually be handsome.

His eyes had been closed but they opened with little urgency when Revali stood in front of him. (His instincts had clearly dulled quite a bit)

Had they always been so blue? It might have been the way they reflected the nightshade, but they shone pure aquamarine up at him.

What Revali hadn’t expected where these first words out of Link’s mouth. “You have the most beautiful eyes.”

He balked, for a moment thinking he had somehow read his mind.

Link had misinterpreted his fluster and apologized. “Sorry, it’s just with this angle and this light they look just like the light through the leaves behind you.”

“You sure have become chatty,” was all Revali responded with. Gruffer than he had intended.

Link laughed silently. “Maybe.” He pat the ground next to him and the rito looked at it rather unimpressed before giving in and sitting down next to him.

“You found me faster than I was expecting.”

He felt very torn between insisting he hadn’t been looking and boasting that, yes, of course he did. He settled on the latter option. “Please, as if you could actually give me a real chase.”

They sat in silence for a bit until Link finally looked down at his leg. He had been strangely holding his arm out in a weird way the whole time, bowled out in front of him as if he had been holding something invisible on his lap. He looked inexplicably sad. “Yes I know,” he said softly. Tenderly?

“Pardon?”

Link looked at him in surprise, as if having forgotten he was there. “Sorry I was talking to this little one. He’s… sleepy.”

Suddenly Revali was very concerned that maybe Link's time in the chamber had ruined more in his brain than any of them had initially thought. He still hadn't solved who the madman who carved out all of those faces was. Unconsciously, he shifted a tail feather's length away.

“Can you not see them?” Link asked.

“See who?” Revali asked. “It’s just you and me here.”

Link pursed his lips. “This is the home of the Koroks,” he said. “I thought maybe you’d be able to see them…”

Koroks? He actually believed in that rural legend?

Link clearly could read on the rito's expression that he didn't believe him, and he didn't push the matter. “So for what do I get the honour of this second visit from the great solitary warrior Revali?” Link asked.

Revali froze. What to even say to that? What did he want from Link?

Well, there had always been one thing… he smirked. “Well, you know I had been thinking while I was still a spirit that it really was a shame we never got to duel one hundred years ago.” Then he paused, “Right, I guess you wouldn’t remember that I had challenged you in the first place.”

“Shockingly,” Link admitted, “That is the ONLY thing I remember about you, it hit me when I was looking at Revali’s Landing.”

“Revali’s Landing?” He asked.

Link grinned. “You didn’t know that they named it after you?”

Revali grimaced.

“I thought you’d like that,” Link said in surprise, “The Revali I know-“

"You don't"

"What?"

"Know me. Didn't you just say that you don't remember me?"

He wasn't as mad as he sounded, they had barely known each other before. Certainly, they had never spoken like they were now... and there were quite a few memories he was glad got wiped. His face heated as he remembered the very repressed memory of his first day at the castle, not long after their confrontation in Rito village. He had spotted the knight walking down a hall from outside and flew right at him for round two only to smack right into the large window in front of him. In his defence, they didn't have those back in Rito Village.

"Erm, that moment at the landing was the only memory you have of me, just to reiterate?"

Link nodded apologetically.

He was secretly pleased. "Well let me tell you this, as the one thing you MUST know about me: I only like being commemorated for what I've earned."

“You… don't think you earned a memorial?" Link asked in confusion. “Weren't you the pride of the ritos?"

"Pride of the ritos indeed," Revali muttered before snapping at Link: “I believe I was in the middle of challenging you to a duel, knight. Don’t think you can so easily change the subject!” His eyes narrowed at the Hylian, ordering him to drop that last thread of conversation. Then his self-inflated tone returned. “Yes a duel to finally settle the score between us! A battle of the ages!” He turned to Link excitedly, “What do you say?”

Link mulled over the challenge for a moment.

“No.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know I was playing the game and I went back to the flight range and it was the first time I had noticed the background music was just a super sombre and quiet music box version of Revali's theme. I hadn't heard it before because I tend to play my switch lite on a low volume and the wind had always drowned it out.
> 
> I have to say, that really hit me in the heart like a brick. Can I sue Nintendo for the damages? XD  
> I just stood alone in the shack staring the targets, gobsmacked for way too long.
> 
> (also guys, is his theme not the prettiest composition of the whole game? Change my mind)(It might not be that hard, like I said, I don't hear a lot when I'm playing XD)


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Today I learned you don't HAVE to have chapter summaries. Great. I hate them XD

“No?” Revali parroted, too taken aback by the response to say much more. He had never been at a loss for words before, but speechlessness was becoming a more and more common affliction these last two days.

He figured he’d just wait until Link explained but he had forgotten that he was LINK and of course he wasn’t going to talk unprompted. “Why?” He finally managed to ask.

“I mean…” Link said, hesitantly, “Logistically, how would that even work?”

“We would… battle?” Revali replied dumbly. “… the hero of the Rito, against Hyrule’s mightiest knight…?”

“Yes,” Link said, confirming he got that part. “But, how would we do that exactly? Wouldn’t any battle between an archer and a swordsman have to be… fatal? We can’t spar if you don’t use a sword and shield. Aren’t you just going to fly up and start shooting down at me? I don’t really feel like dying today.”

He rose a good point… regrettably. He wanted to beat Link but not necessarily kill or permanently maim him. He tried to think of a non-lethal way for them to fight and was honestly drawing a large blank.

One hundred years of dreaming about this moment, one would think he would have planned this far.

“An… archery contest?” He tried.

Link grimaced “I can handle a bow but I’m hardly a master.” He ignored Revali muttering in agreeance. “I’m better at close-ranged weaponry…”

Revali clicked his beak in annoyance, “You’re not making this easy.”

Link sent him a lop-sided smile that caused a befuddling flip within his chest. “I’m not an easy kind of guy.” It almost would have sounded flirtatious if he hadn’t known how stringent Link’s kind were on that sort of thing between men.

Link’s ears flicked as an idea struck him.

Come to think of it... Link's ears moved a lot. They were actually quite expressive; they certainly didn't use to do that. Zelda's ears never moved either. He'd seen the behaviour in children but never adults. He had assumed it was a reflex Hylians learned to control as they aged so as not to betray their thoughts so easily. Was Link even cognizant he was doing it? Perhaps he had forgotten basic Hylian social etiquette along with the rest of his memories and hadn't realized yet it was something he was capable of managing.

Well, Revali certainly wasn’t going to say anything. He kind of liked that he finally had a way of reading him, so he wasn’t going to be the one to clue him in on this. (Plus it made it him feel a little better that he was the one rito who had never managed to get full control over his ruffling feathers)

“Stay there, I need to go consult a tree,” Link told him.

He had been lost in thought and so had to do a double-take, "Wait, what now?"

Link stood up, now holding the imaginary 'korok' in his hands. He looked at his empty arms for a second before gently murmuring “I’ll be right back” and mimed placing the creature on Revali’s knee. “Hold on to him for a second,” Link requested.

The empty air that was thrust onto him was a bit heavier than Revali had expected and every feather on his body slowly rose in mute horror as Link sauntered off and began to climb the large tree for reasons unknown.

Revali’s eyes slowly fell down to his lap where he could just vaguely register the something that was a little bit more than the nothing it appeared as. He tried to tell himself it was just phantom paranoia. Like when one imagines a tick and so then feels it under their feathers.

Then there was a weight on his shoulder and a few of his feathers were tousled by an external force and his spine went dead straight in something he wouldn’t admit was fear.  
His previous impression remained: Goddessdamn. This forest.

Link paraglided down from above and stared at Revali for a moment with surprise. His expression broke into a wide smile. “That is so cute,” he stated.

The rito was still frozen, resisting a screech with trained stubbornness and pride when he felt a third something prodding at his tail feathers. Cute he said. He couldn’t see anything cute about this. He couldn’t SEE anything.

“They sure do seem to like you,” The former knight grinned.

He considered asking Link for help seeing as he could at least see what was afflicting him but every fibre of his being stood against such a thing so he just glared at him and hoped he got the message.

Obviously, he didn’t because when Link bent down in front of him, he asked him something so out-of-the-blue that he was stunned speechless once more. “Can you sing?”

“…Sing?” Revali finally managed to ask. Link didn’t repeat the question, instead letting him come to terms with what his own ears had heard. “Of course I can,” he said weakly, almost forgetting the ghosts crawling all over him with the utter absurdity of the question. “What kind of rito can’t sing?”

Link put up his hands defensively, “Okay, sorry for asking. Do you think you could repeat after me?”

Before Revali even had the time to respond, Link had already pursed his weird Hylian lips together in a confusing shape and let out three notes. The sounds emerging from his mouth had the oddest similarity to a rito’s trill, while still sounding so different.

“I wasn't aware hylian mouths could do that,” he said.

“It’s called whistling, now repeat the notes,” Link said, and he whistled the same three notes again.

His bafflement turned him somewhat docile it seemed because he proceeded to warble out the notes without too much protest. The writhing emptiness weighing down his body so weightlessly paused as if listening.

Link’s eyes were wide with excitement. “That sounded so cool!"

“Was there a point to this?” Revali asked dryly.

“Right,” Link said, scratching the back of his head, “there’s more.” He whistled a few more notes and Revali copied again. They did this back and forth for a few bars until Link smiled. “Okay, now do that all together.”

Revali sang out the entirety of the song. An upbeat tune, not unpleasant. The strangest thing happened though. In the subtlest way, the forest seemed to react to it. The leaves of the oldest and tallest trees rustled without wind, as if they remembered the tune.

Then there was a small tap on his lower side and he almost jumped out of his feathers when he saw a small sapling-like creature staring up at him. Or at least it seemed to somehow be looking at him. As far as he could tell, it had no face other than a leaf it had jammed onto a twig where it seemed to think it ought to have a one. Two eyes and a mouth were crudely drawn on with a child-like accuracy.

It was… unsettling. On closer inspection, these freaky little things were crawling all over him!

They seemed curious, patting at his wings and prodding at his feathers. It was strange to see their wooden bodies move so fluidly. One would expect them to move more rigidly- if at all with their composition. The korok Link had placed on his lap earlier was slowly dozing off, nestled into his downy soft stomach.

“Mr. Birdie, can you sing again?” The one that had tapped him asked.

Reluctantly he repeated the tune and creatures stopped moving around again to listen.

“Again!”

He did his best to shake them off, “I think not. Link, what was the point in all of this?"

“Well Revali," Link said with an unmistakable glint of mirth in his eye, "If you really want to face off in a challenge, I think my friends here can help."

"Help?" Revali asked, crossing his wings.

Links smile grew playful, Goddess he really was like an overgrown child now. "How would you like to play one more game of hide and seek?”

“Hide and seek?” Revali asked. Not exactly the triumphant clash he had been envisioning.

"Well you're clearly pretty good at it, and I've been playing a long-running game of it myself with these guys.. The way we play it, I think it would be a good flex of both of our skill sets."

"Don't make a mockery of me," Revali threatened, pride a little scuffed at what he thought the hero was implying would be the middle-ground between their skills.

"Korok hide and seek isn't for the faint of heart," Link protested. "You have no idea how many times I almost died. They hide in some dangerous spots. I almost had a heart attack when I found the little guys running around Hyrule Castle."

If he wasn't mistaken, Link hadn't returned to the castle since he infiltrated it to reach Calamity Ganon.

“Well, at first I was startled, but in the end they definitely eased my nerves a little even though I almost got shot by a few Guardians trying to catch them...” Link clarified.

So basically.

That day.

When Link had gone into the castle and all the champions had to watch anxiously from the sidelines… Waiting with bated breath to see him enter the sanctum, hoping for that slight chance that his luck would hold out and he would make it through those hoards of monsters and ancient sheikah death machines...

Link was in there, making his way through so easily that he was casually playing hide and seek as he slaughtered albino moblins and silver lynels in the malice coated hallways. Suddenly Revali almost felt relief they weren't going to physically fight anymore.

There was something very terribly wrong with this hero. Good thing he hadn’t gone straight to Zelda after the Zora Domain, he would have erroneously reported that Link was ‘fine’.

Link looked down at the small wood monster nuzzled into Revali. “Do you think… you’re up for one last game before you sleep?” He asked him.

The creature nodded. “Ok-ie!”

“Will you round up all of your friends then?”

“Leave it to Walton!” He said and shook a pair of berry branches excitedly. Then all of the little vermin that had been crawling on him disappeared in puffs of smoke and leaves.

“Whichever one of us can find the most in this clearing wins,” Link said. “Look for anything unusual and investigate. It’s surprisingly more intuitive than you’d think.”  
___________

Well he had been right, it was oddly intuitive. Logically, it shouldn’t have been and yet it was. How did they fit in those little jars suspended from the trees that he shot down? Uncertain yet at the same time he had been so sure that was what he was supposed to do. His favourite challenges were the pinwheels that prompted moving balloon targets. It wasn’t hard but it was still interesting practice given their erratic patterns.

Upon finding each korok, they handed him a small pebble in order to keep score. Five pebbles in, he finally allowed for his gaze to scan the forest floor for the unfortunately land-locked hylian. The playfield being an aged forest with cascading branch canopies meant a lot of the battle was brought up vertically in places Link wouldn’t be able to reach.

Or so he thought.  
He could barely hide his surprise when he found Link climbing up the side of a tree at an impossible speed. Upon finding nothing at the top of the tree he was on, the hylian jumped the two wingspan’s gap to the neighbouring one with frightening sureness. He wondered how someone without wings could confidently make such death-defying leaps. It was a long way down to the bottom if he missed.

He couldn’t resist flying by and sardonically saying. “Wow, you truly are descended from monkeys.”

“Oh sorry, I tuned out after ‘wow’.” Link jeered back and then grinned as he spotted a jar a branch over. That grin quickly fell to a scowl as an arrow from behind shattered it. “Oh come on,” he said. “Be a good sport.”

Revali just laughed as he collected his pebble and flew away.

Just from the shear number of koroks playing, the game extended on well over an hour. The two rivals would exchange banter in passing that became more and more nonsensical and silly as they tired out.

When Revali was finally certain of his lead, he couldn’t resist rubbing it in Link’s face. He landed on a ridge of the massive tree, high enough to have a good vantage point to view the whole forest clearing. “Better pick up the pace, hero!” He called out as he watched Link strenuously lift a massive rock above his head. For the thousandth time that day he had to hide how begrudgingly impressed he was. He strongly doubted any other hylian would be able to lift it on their own like that- it had to be half his size. He glanced away after he caught himself ruefully admiring the way Link’s muscles bulged from the strain.

The former knight dropped the boulder into a gap to complete a stone circle, releasing another korok. Link turned to stare up at him with a wide self-congratulating grin. “Are you sure you have time to just sit there?” He called.

“Please” Revali smiled mockingly. “Don’t preen yourself too much you ugly little sloth,” he paused. Was adding ‘ugly’ too much? He might have just been overcompensating from his previous moment of embarrassing ogling. “I’m just being sportsmanly like you asked and trying to give you a fighting chance by letting you catch up.” Then he added. “Honestly, I thought you said you were _good_ at this.”

Link just rolled his eyes, “Get off of his face already you giant turkey. You’re being disrespectful.”

This actually caught Revali off-guard. “What?”

“Ohoho, it’s quite nice to see everyone so lively.” It was like an earthquake. An earthquake that didn’t appear to be affecting the actual earth given Link’s unaffected posture down on the ground. Everything was shaking up and down for Revali though as the voice reverberated. He squawked and took immediate flight.  
It was the tree that had been moving. Or the part he had been sitting on anyway.  
On closer inspection, it wasn’t a ridge at all but rather, a moustache.

“This tree is alive?!” He asked in disbelief.

“All trees are alive!” Link called back in amusement, before remembering his current objective and getting on with the game.

“Well who do have we here? A friend of Link’s?” The tree asked, its face moving elastically as if its bark were skin. The deep lines in the wood made him look incredibly old… well he probably was given his size.

“Hardly,” Revali flicked his wing at the thought as he gracefully landed on a nearby branch. “At best, he’s a former work associate…” He then made a face because surely there was a better term than ‘associate’. Calling him an associate suggested he was on par with his greatness.

“I’ve been watching you two play with my children. It’s been a long time since a rito has even attempted to approach this forest, your kind has become even more adept at flight from what I've seen.”

“I assure you I am an outlier of my kind. No one else has ever yet achieved my mastery of the sky,” Revali said, preening a loose feather off of his legendary wing.

The tree laughed a booming thunder. “A proud one I see! You remind me quite a lot of a forest child who once lived here. You act a little like him too, Mido would always give Link such a hard time!” The tree lost his vigour for a moment, and a pang of sadness rang in his voice: “That was a very long time ago, he ended up regretting how he’d left their relationship for the rest of his life…”

Revali’s eyes narrowed. The stories had said that Link had only been in the woods for a day when he was a child yet the tree was talking as if Link had once lived here. “Well, he could be heartened to know Link doesn’t even remember that. It was all the same in the end.”

“Yes…” The tree agreed, “I suppose that’s true.”

“You talk as if you were close to him,” Revali said.

“I would like to think that I was.”

“Were you surprised when you learned he lost his memories then?”

The tree paused. “No. It was not the first time, and it will not be the last. That is the fate of the hero of time. All I can do is guide him each time he returns.”

Old people sure loved to be cryptic. The elder of his village when he was growing up used to love to talk in riddles at the most frustrating times. Impa had become less straightforward in her old age too. She used to be such a direct and blunt woman. When he was little he had thought obscure words were a symbol of wisdom. Now he was thinking it was all just senility. Pitiable.

“Say, young one,” the tree said.

“What?” He asked.

“Could you sing Saria’s song one more time? It has been so long since I’ve heard it- and with Link’s visit, I’m feeling sentimental.”

He thought about asking who Saria was. He thought about asking a lot of things. Then he reminded himself he was never going to get a straight answer anyway… and that he was talking to a tree. He sang the tune and the tree listened wistfully.

As he finished, he heard Link call out “That makes thirty two!”

Revali flinched, he hadn’t intended to let him catch up that far. “Well,” he said, pretending he wasn’t suddenly in a rush to get back into the mix, “I suppose I have given him a generous enough reprieve of my relentless and overwhelming talent. It was an… interesting talk at least.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You would think with Corona it would be easier to write with all this extra time, but not having anywhere to go or anyone to talk to some days, it's so hard to get the creative juices flowing :P I guess we can also blame my roomates moving out this week as a distraction on why this chapter took so long. The pandemonium is FRUSTERATING. They keep coming back to steal single items like dish soap XD Y tho?
> 
> Next chapter might FINALLY have a little bit of fluff. We might even see a little bit of.... affectionate birb? (gruff affection of course)


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I said it would be a fluffy chapter didn't I? Oops. Uh. Hmm. Kind of? The bois are too angsty I tried.

There was a small light dashing around the forest floor. Revali had probably never looked so much like a falcon until this moment when he circled his prey in the sky and lined up for a dive.

But then he spotted Link, sprinting at full speed through the grass and he backed off in annoyance, if he dove now they’d end up colliding, and it wasn’t worth it. Plus he’d already poached one of Link’s catches, he could be a fair sport when he wanted to be.

Instead, Revali flew down calmly to watch from the ground as Link pounced onto the light.

Another poof of leaves and smoke accompanied a distant rattle. “Yaha! You found me!” The Korok squealed in delight and Linked laughed, hugging the creature to his chest as he fell back into the meadow, giggling deliriously in a way Revali would have once never had guessed possible. If his beak were capable of such a feat- he might have been smiling lightly as well. Thank the Goddess it wasn’t.

He realized he recognized the korok squirming in the hero’s arms as the one that had been napping on his lap earlier. Finally, it wiggled its little arms and legs in protest and Link let him go.

“You found us all!” It announced.

“Wait, really?” Link asked in dismay. That had, of course, meant that he lost.

Instead of pulling out a pebble, the korok attempted to hand Link a little yellow seed.

Link’s mouth opened a little in surprise and he just stared at the oddly shaped seed in disbelief, clearly in on something Revali wasn’t. Link looked at the korok and then back to its little outstretched nub. He gingerly took the seed, inspecting it between his own fingers. Then, he burst out laughing. “You were in on that prank this whole time? You little scamp!”

The korok, fiddled with its tiny arms as if half ashamed. “Tell Hetsu that Walton’s sorry if he hurt his feelings.”

“It wasn’t very nice of all of you but I’m sure he forgives you anyway,” Link said squatting down to affectionately stroke the creature’s back.

Link pulled out a little pouch from his sack and deposited the seed inside looking quite pleased with himself.

“Mr. Hero…” The korok said.

“Yeah?” he replied as he repacked his bag.

“I’m still sleepy.”

Link’s hands paused mid-way through buckling his backpack shut. Something dark and mournful flashed through his eyes so fast that probably only Revali with his keen bird’s eye caught it before he forced a smile. “Yeah… I know Walton.” He returned to shutting his bag but now he was slower, as if his hands were shaky.

Link stood a little too abruptly and the korok reached up towards him. He hesitantly picked him up- a massive shift from before where he couldn’t seem to bring himself to put the korok down. “Have you thought about where you want to sleep?” He asked. “Revali’s got the sheikah slate, we could go anywhere in Hyrule! I know a mountain full of little Blupees-“

The korok shook in a way that was probably like shaking one’s head. “No. Over there by those pretty flowers works.” It pointed to a little crop of white wildflowers and Link stared at them for a beat before solemnly nodding.

“Okay,” he said, voice barely above a whisper.

Unable to take the strange mood, Revali wracked his brain to say something. “You’re being awfully domestic, hero-“ His voice cut short the second Link shot him a look that seemed to say, ‘shut up for now’ and he surprisingly obliged, following the Hylian with the korok wordlessly like a scolded child.

Link placed Waldon down on the ground beside the flowers, his arms dropped to his sides uselessly once he had nothing to hold. The korok let out a large yawn. “Night night!”

“Good night,” said Link with a pained smile.

The korok, to Revali’s surprise, slowly faded into a small tree sapling.

“Oh.”

Link nodded. “He was older than you’d guess. Korok’s stay youthful for their whole lives, they don’t age they just get… more and more sleepy. Then eventually they sleep forever.”

Link walked away from the newly sprouted sapling and Revali continued to stare at the tiny little sprout, paper-thin with two little leaves sticking out the top. He waited to see if they would tremble or move in any way to suggest that the magic of sentient life remained.

It was just a normal sapling now.

He turned to follow Link because what else was he going to do?

Surprisingly, Link was already halfway up scaling the great tree.

Revali lifted off with a powerful flap and waited at the top for him to arrive.

When Link climbed over the lip and spotted the rito, he didn’t say anything, just wordlessly plopped down on the mossy flat surface of the tree’s stumpy roof.

His depressed mood was quite justifiable given the current circumstances, but this wasn’t the first or even second time in these last two days that the rito had watched the hero flip from easy-going and playful to completely devoid of light. It was… worrying.

Those shining eyes he had admired when he had first entered the forest had dulled now, going from cut gems to deep unfathomable oceans.

He tried to fool himself and say that Link was just having a bad week but he knew that wasn’t the case. There was something very deeply wrong. He could tell because he felt it within himself as well. Maybe not right now, but just as often. As if some of that malicious ganon gunk had settled into his chest permanently and thinly coated his chest and lungs in a way that could never be fully clean again.

“I thought you’d want to gloat a little bit about your victory,” Link finally commented. “Congratulations by the way, I really did think I’d have the upper hand.”

Yeah, he had thought he’d feel more elated too. He had finally won, wasn’t this what he wanted? Wasn’t this what was supposed to finally fill that aching empty hole in his pride? He’d always been able to offset loss with little victories before- and this was a big one: defeating the hylian champion in a battle of his choice.

Winning archery contests had been an excellent way of distracting himself from the loss of his parents growing up.

Mastering his gale and earning the title of ‘rito champion’ had certainly paid off for all that time he spent practically living at the flight range and unintentionally alienating himself from his people in his relentless pursuit of perfection.

Why wasn’t this enough?

It was because he didn’t win. No matter how many little challenges he bested Link in now, nothing would ever change the fact that he had failed where Link had ultimately succeeded.

He spent his entire time as a champion whining and bellyaching that he was meant to be so much more than just support. Then he couldn’t manage to even do that. Every single one of them failed Link and he ultimately defeated Ganon anyway after the additional task of travelling across the country bailing each of them out as they were quite literally dead weight.

Sure Link had fallen in the battle of Fort Hateno but that was only as he shouldered the additional task of defending Zelda against the hundreds of guardians as she continued to struggle to find her holy powers. One could hardly discredit him for that. He had a guardian shoot him in the abdomen and he still only let himself topple over once he knew his princess was safe.

“I was trying to joke, but now you look how I feel,” Link commented.

“You don’t need to lose your memories in order to change,” Revali finally said and Link looked up at him in surprise. “Sometimes dying and being trapped as a tortured spirit for several lifetimes longer than you had ever lived in the first place with no one but your murderer can do a bit of a number on you as well.”

“I guess it could,” Link agreed, his ears had drooped as if they had wilted.

It wasn’t that hard to guess what he was thinking. “It wasn’t your fault,” he snapped. “Do you think I want to hear right now that you regretted ever believing in me?”

“I wasn’t-“

“You were probably thinking something stupid like, ‘I should have saved him’- but I’ll have you know that I would have never forgiven you if you had abandoned your duties in the mission to chase after me and made sure I could do mine.”

“In any case, this is the best possible outcome, we’re all alive and we have won in the end.”

Link sighed. “…why does it never feel like it?”

Because they lost everything in the process and life was now more of a punishment than a gift.  
He often wished he hadn’t revived.

He had been satisfied when he and Medoh were finally able to do their part and shoot ganon partway to smithereens. Back then he thought that he could pass on peacefully as the legend he was meant to be. He could pretend he had saved Hyrule.

But coming back, he was forced to see the truth, there was hardly anything left to save. Everyone he had fought to protect back home was gone. He wasn’t entirely sure what state rito village was in but there were definitely less zora and MUCH less hylians running around so it was hard to believe that the rito faired any better.

Hateno village- the now center of hylian activity used to extend all of the way to Fort Hateno and now it was just a handful of houses.

The villain was defeated but the world had still been all but destroyed anyway. This was a sad tie at best.

He snapped himself out of these lugubrious thoughts. Link’s misery was rubbing up way to close to his own. They were a pair that should really stay clear of one and other for both their mental health, but the overwhelming loneliness kept him rooted in place.

It had moved far into the night, something he only noticed now as he spotted the moon above them. Day and night looked the same in these woods. With his feathers, he wasn’t capable of detecting the minor temperature drop that was associated with the departure of the sun but looking at Link, it was clear it had gotten cold.

Once again each of those little blond hairs that ran up his arms stood completely vertical.

Revali sighed. “For an adventurer, you sure are lazy.”

“Lazy?” Link asked in surprise. “I’ve definitely never heard anyone call me that before.”

“Of course you are,” Revali said gruffly, “you can’t even bother to put on an extra layer when you get cold.”

Link looked at his body in surprise, as if he hadn’t even noticed how it had been screaming for his attention. He rubbed his bare skin a little non-committally and sighed. “It’s fine. My bag is down below and it’s not so bad.”

“Like I said, lazy.” Revali dropped beside him and wrapped a great wing around his thin body, sheltering the hylian from the outside elements.

He could see in his periphery Link’s head snap to stare at him in shock but he couldn’t find the words to explain himself because even he didn’t know what he was doing anymore. So he just sent him back a sharp look that seemed to say; ‘Don’t you dare comment’.

There was a secondary look as well though, a message that he had no idea he was broadcasting. ‘I need this too’. Had he been touched since he’d come back? Ah Mipha... but had he touched anyone? How long had it been?

Apprehension was starting to feel thick in his blood as Link continued to stare at him unreadably. Finally, the hero’s body relaxed into the quasi-embrace and he nuzzled a little closer into the rito’s side. Revali flinched at the uninvited gesture but ultimately relented. Just for today, he’d endure this behaviour.

“If this is the kind of treatment people get for being lazy, I should try it more often,” Link finally commented with his eyes closed peacefully.

“Insufferable,” Revali muttered in an empty insult.

“Warm,” Link breathed.

“Of course it is.”

In a world where he still felt a lot like a walking ghost, this felt unexpectedly real. Calming even. It was hard to say how long they stayed like that without a word but it was certainly enough time for some of that inky darkness to dissolve away for the first time. Lungs unburdened, their breaths felt fuller now.

There was a slight rustling below him and he watched the hylian under his wing reach out and begin to fiddle with its tip curiously.

“Now what are you doing?” Revali asked.

“Sorry,” Link mumbled. “I’ve just always wondered.”

He did his very best to ignore the pool of heat shooting from his left wing and jolting through his body. He had clearly starved himself of another’s touch for far too long if even this savage idiot could make him all warm and soft.

Link ran his digits down his navy blue feathers until he reached the fuzzy white.

“They really are fingers,” Link marvelled.

“Did you think I could hold a bow with feathers?” Revali asked. He watched as the hylian marvel at them, bending and flexing the appendages at each joint.

“They’re flat but wide,” Link observed.

“For the Aerodynamics,” Revali said. “How would we ever be able to fly if they were as stubby as yours?”

Link just hummed a non offended agreeance.

The rito watched intensely as the hylian continued to play with his fingers, weaving his own between the gaps and feeling the thin edges. He had never really given hylian hands such a close up inspection either.

Those little invisible hairs were above his knuckles too. There were creases in his skin that looked typical of his species; little wrinkles that signified just how much they moved and flexed their hands but there were obvious scars too. Revali likely had them as well but such imperfections were hidden well under his feathers.

“Well since we’re both here and I’m doing you such an immense favour… I do believe in quid pro quo,” Revali said, haughtiness returning to his voice. “You might as well tell me how rito village is fairing.”

“Cold,” Link said without a second thought.

Revali balled his fist as punishment removing the Hylian’s access to the hand he was so intent on exploring. “Well, forgive me for forgetting it’s not possible to have an intelligent discussion with you. It’s Hebra, of course it’s cold.” Then he shook his head and muttered under his breath, “Truly, a riveting conversationalist as always.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Link said.

“Well then what pray tell did you mean?”

“Everyone’s so… serious,” Link said. “Kind and welcoming but serious. I feel like the place is missing your… I don't know... Like it used to be warmer when you were there-” A wry smile crossed his lips, “-squawking about.”

Revali huffed. “So you were trying to be a poet then? Save it for someone with a few more brain cells, metaphors aren’t your strong suit.”

“Can’t be good at everything.”

“Aren’t ‘heros’ supposed to be?”

“People are into flawed protagonists now though.”

Revali looked him over critically. “Well, they must love you then.”

“They seem to,” his smile only faltered for a second, “can’t sleep in a single stable without hearing the romantic tragedy of the princess and the knight.”

Revali snorted, “They’d be so disappointed to know the truth of how up in each other’s hair you both were- that’s the hylian expression yes?”

Link nodded.

“And speaking of hair and flaws… it seems grooming is another one of yours, isn’t it?” Revali asked in amusement, picking the litter of leaves and twigs out of Link’s hair. “Don’t mistake this as preening,” he added quickly. “It’s just that if you’re going to sit under my wing, I can’t have your filth transferring to me- I should have checked you first for fleas…” He grumbled.

“Revali,” Link said seriously, and the rito paused in his plucking. “You were right about Mipha and how I shouldn’t avoid her.”

“Does this surprise you? I often am.”  
He often wasn’t.

“So I’ll listen to you… I trust your judgement.”

“A wise decision. On what exactly?”

“Should I…return to Zelda? To the castle? Was I just being silly about that too?”

Oh.

Revali looked at him, he was staring up at the rito with the most trusting eyes he had ever seen. He knew he couldn’t just say whatever because Link had clearly meant everything he had said. He would follow Revali’s advice.

If it could just be passed off as an offhanded comment, he’d say something like, ‘Of course you should, you're sad excuse for a knight without a queen!’

Instead, he stared at Link and simply tried to remember the knight of the past. Who he was then and who he was now. It was startling to see how much these two days had overwritten his memory. The old Link was now just a hazy image of a miserable person.

And he _had_ been miserable.

“No,” Revali said. He ruffled Link's hair joylessly. "You can trust your instincts there. Never go back again. You don't need walls, you don't need a collar and you certainly don't need any of the memories you made there. Be happy okay?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I read on reddit the theory about how all of those trees were past koroks that the surviving koroks were the one's that carved faces into them as if they were still living friends and that stuck with me.
> 
> There's so many sleepy korok's in the forest. If that's what the creators were getting at, the one who created Link's bed and then waiting for him until he got 'sleepy' himself is so tragic.


	12. Chapter 12

Revali returned to the castle the next day assuring the Princess that, yes, the idiot was fine.

She asked him if he was taking proper care of himself. “Yes,” he had said, the lie rolling naturally off of his tongue- partially because only after that word was out and he tasted the acidity did he realize it even _was_ a lie. This place would be toxic to Link for sure but was releasing him out into the wilderness the best idea? The kid was an idiot. Slighty more endearing than he remembered, but certainly stupid.

His worry must have been infectious because a moment later the same worried look was mirrored on Zelda’s much more expressive Hylian face. “Did you two… fight?” She asked, mistaking his agitation for aggression.

“No,” he said dryly. “We cuddled and talked about our feelings.” This was said in a sarcastic tone as if to imply that wasn’t _exactly_ what had happened.

“Revali please,” Zelda sighed. “While I often appreciate humour for levity’s sake, I’m afraid I’m just too worried to find myself amused. He’s not as suited to being alone out there as he thinks he is. He’s too reckless.”

That didn’t ease that strange knotting feeling of concern in Revali’s stomach.

“Perhaps,” she started to say, “perhaps rather than just asking you to find him, I should have at least had you try to convince him to return home.”

“Believe me,” Revali said dryly. “I’m the last person he’d ever listen to about that.” Lies were coming rather naturally for him today it seemed.

“Yes, I suppose that’s true. I should be thanking you for doing as much as you did.”

“I’d say.”

And with that, the topic of her former knight was dropped and life continued on.

He thought about Link from time to time during the first couple of weeks back. _Maybe_ a little more than 'time to time' actually. _Maybe_ even a little bit obsessively. Then, irritated from being forced to worry he finally settled with scrawling a hasty letter with the words:

_‘Be well. Don’t die or I’ll kill you, ~~you stupid monkey.~~_

_~~Love,~~ _

_-R’_

He’d rewrite it but rewriting suggested an added level of caring he didn’t want to admit to himself so he sent it to Link’s Hateno home assuming at some point the former knight would stumble upon it. There was no real rush for it to get to its designated receiver. This was more for Revali’s own piece of mind, and to satiate the regret of leaving the sleeping Link in the ancient forest without any final words.

After that, he was able to better banish Link from his mind. Sort of. He thought about him less anyway.

Every so often still he’d look out to the horizon and wonder what the Hylian with a multitude of options and so much potential had ended up doing with his life. Maybe Mipha had managed to convince him to stay in the Zora domain. Maybe he returned to Hateno and was passing his days in the cozy monotony of quiet village life. Revali could see him maybe starting a garden on his property or raising some animals. Maybe he stayed in the lost forest- his mission complete and content to lay down and finally relax where legends went to rest.

He only had a few years worth of memories to his name, it made him oddly childlike in some regard so maybe he felt more at home with the forest children- a species with no concept of time.

He just hoped wherever Link settled, he was starting to feel like a person again.

When other champions visited, Revali listened ~~intently~~ passively for mention of the Hylian. No such mention ever came.

A year would pass before he would leave castle town again or come back in contact with his old rival.

* * *

“You are a disgrace!” Revali squawked in frustration. “Is this really the best you Hylians can do or are you all just incompetent? I’m hoping for your species' sake it’s the latter! Perhaps the best advice I could give any of you is to aim ANYWHERE but the target and then perhaps there’d at least be _a chance_ you might hit it!”

He was pacing in front a row of knights-in-training, gesturing at the array of arrows protruding into the grass turf of the castle shooting range. If he noticed the way the soldiers all ducked their heads at the criticism, he clearly didn’t care. Even the way they held their bows at rest irked him. Pathetic, the lot of them!

He rubbed at his temples, feeling a migraine coming on. He loathed everything and everyone recently. More than usual. He was just... _tired_. 

The thing was, he _knew_ they could be better! As much as Zelda and Urbosa would try to remind him that Hylians couldn’t fight the same way as rito, Link was a hylian. The standard Revali was setting in his mind was not of himself but of the feats he had witnessed Link achieve.

He had once thought that Link was an _average_ bowman at best, but as the new recruits continued to fail to reach even half of Link’s abilities, he could almost bring himself to admit Link was a _damn_ good archer! At least for what he could do with the limitations of his body.

“Revali,” He could hear Urbosa say darkly from behind him as he continued to rag on the sorry men.

Now it was Revali’s turn to freeze and duck his head.

“I take it your lesson is finished?” She asked. He turned to face her and- oh yes she was ticked. “Let’s take a walk.”

He begrudgingly followed her, muttering under his breath that it wasn’t his fault that they were so useless.

When they were out of earshot of the bowmen, the desert queen sent him a stern side-glance. “I believe Zelda has already spoken to you this week about your behaviour. “

Revali glanced away. “They are soldiers, not children. They should be able to take a bit of strict teaching.”

“ _Justly strict_? Is that what you’d call your style?” She asked dryly.

“They are training to be fighters! If I coddle them, they’ll die out there!” He protested.

He had thought they had just been walking without direction, but he realized quickly she had been leading him somewhere, to Zelda specifically.

The Queen was in her favourite garden at the large white table she would sometimes have her tea. Naturally of course, her ‘tea time’ consisted of her pouring over old scrolls and tombs, tea sitting to the side, cold and neglected.

She glanced up at their approach and smiled warmly. “Oh Revali, Urbosa! Good morning!”.

Urbosa nodded her head at the greeting and crossed her arms. “I found him bullying the recruits, _again_. I told you if I saw this happen, I’d be bringing him back too you.”

“Again,” Revali protested. “I’d hardly say I was overstepping.”

A deep-set grimace had crossed Zelda’s face. “Revali…” She finally sighed. “For a volunteer position, I fear you are letting the stress get to you. I appreciate your generosity in volunteering to instruct the army but… please treat them a little kinder.”

“Oh no, Zelda. You are a Queen now. You cannot keep giving him a simple slap on the…” Urbosa glanced at the tip of Revali’s wing. “… _wrist_ and then allow him to completely ignore you. You have spoken to him once already, it’s time you start reminding this stubborn bird of your authority.”

Zelda looked at both of them ruefully.

“I… consider you a friend Revali…” She finally said, looking at him directly. “So I pains me to have to use my position on you, but Urbosa is right, I am the Queen of Hyrule now. I appreciate your banter on the day to day but that is different than you woefully ignoring my requests on how I would like my army brought up.”

Revali’s eyes narrowed. "Are you about to punish me, _your majesty?"_

Zelda shook her head vigorously. “No! Of course not! I just…”

“Go on,” Urbosa encouraged her and Revali just wished she would butt out.

“Revali, I order you to take a vacation,” Zelda said.

“I beg your pardon? A what?” Revali asked, entirely taken aback.

“A vacation,” she repeated. “You need a break. You are going to start molting all of your feathers off in stress soon. I think this would be both beneficial to yourself as well as for the men at arms you’ve been making your personal punching bags.”

Urbosa nodded proudly at Zelda and turned on the rito. “Revali, believe me, we of the Gerudo have mastered the art of tough-love teaching. What you’ve been doing recently is not that and your conduct has been entirely unprofessional.”

Revali glared at her. Since when had she ever cared about _men_ before? If it hadn’t bothered Zelda, she’d probably be fine with Revali’s teaching style. Darnnit he respected her strength but he also hated the way she flaunted her age and experience to be a hypocrite. “What exactly are you even doing here?” Revali asked. “Don’t you have a throne in the sand wastes to attend to?”

“I have come to lend my short-term assistance,” she said. “The Hylian army needed some hand-to-hand combat training. There is no one of the Hylians remaining with military experience.”

“Well there's _someone_ ," Revali commented. "Isn’t this something your precious knight should be doing instead?” He asked Zelda, heated in the moment and ignoring the fact that he was the one that told Link to stay away. “He was the one who was schooled in Hylian fighting techniques.”

Zelda winced. “Ermm, hm. _No_. I am quite grateful Urbosa has offered her services. Link’s fighting style… how to put it? It isn’t the same as one hundred years ago… it’s become a little…”

“Surely he can still fight?” Revali asked. “He defeated the blights and the Calamity after all.”

“He can fight…” Zelda admitted, “but I don’t think his tactics are exactly things I’d want to be imparted onto my own men… They wouldn’t be able to survive any of the things he does! You wondered why I was so afraid for his safety out there. Well, you've never had to watch him _ride_ a silver lynel. I know for a fact that was EXPLCITLY NOT a technique of the former knights of Hyrule."

_Ride a lynel??_

THE IMBECILE.

“As well,” Zelda added. “He’s got some…” she almost whispered this next part. “ _new-found pyromaniac tendencies_ that would not reflect well on the royal army.”

Revali’s beak hung loose.

“While I was holding the calamity back, I could only let my gaze wander out to track his process for a few moments now and again but what I saw was deeply disturbing,” she admitted. “Brutal really.”

That little barbarian… Revali would have paid to watch Zelda’s expression during his quest. To be a fly on wall in Hyrule castle as she watched her former bodyguard act as the buffoon baboon he now knew him to be.

Urbosa looked partly amused but seemed to still be in the mood to scold Revali rather than laugh with him. “You seem smug,” She commented. “I urge you to remember that he did still defeat the Calamity, even in this weakened state.”

“Weakened?” Revali asked. “With his new fighting style he accomplished what he couldn’t before, I’m not sure I’d call that weakened.”

Urbosa and Zelda booth looked at him in surprise.

“You’re standing up for him?” Zelda asked. “Revali, I’m impressed by this personal grow-“

“I’m going to stop you there,” Revali said, bringing up a wing. “I’m defending my own honour here. I’ll have you know when I met with him last year, we dueled and I emerged victorious. I will not let claims that he is ‘weakened’ besmirch my victory.”

Zelda’s mouth was now a surprised little ‘o’. “You fought? How would that even work?”

“Well our weapons were not exactly compatible for direct combat…” He admitted. “But Link had come up with a suitable challenge in substitute to test our metal. It was a glorious battle of the champions and I’ll leave it at that.”

Zelda, finally remembering her tea, took a sip and her face scrunched in distaste at the no-doubt luke-warm cup.

Revali shook his head, desperate to change the subject anyway. “What would you do without me?” He asked, beginning to prepare her a new cup.

To an outside observer, this may have looked strange, but it wasn’t. It was their norm now.

Ritos show affection by tending to one and other. This was the one gesture he did for the Queen to show he cared in his own platonic way.

Zelda’s shoulders slacked a little as she watched him retrieve a small bucket of water from the well and even Urbosa eased up. She had always been fiercely protective of Zelda and Mipha. She was much more amenable when you were treating them kindly.

She was never too bothered by his attitude towards Link though… and went a far as to constantly validate Zelda’s early treatment of the knight.

There was a small firepit in the garden that he used to boil the new pot of water in, all the while listening in on Zelda telling Urbosa about a time that she had went to look in on Link’s progress only to find him naked on an island attacking a hinox with a stick.

He grinned to himself. Now wouldn’t that be a sight?

Zelda took her tea with sugar. He looked in confusion at the two identical jars sitting at the base of the stone pit. There used to only be one…

He picked up one and found it sealed rather tight.

As he finally pried it open, there was what had become an all-too-familiar poof of smoke.

He shrieked in frustration as the jar shattered and then disappeared.

“Yah aha! You found me!” A korok congratulated.

He flapped his wings about in frustration. “I KEEP TELLING YOU ALL! I’M NOT PLAYING ANYMORE!”

“Have this!” The Korok said, handing him a seed.

“I don’t know what to do with this!” He complained, waving it madly at the korok as if it would take it back.

He was unintentionally compiling quite the collection.

“You’re so good at hide and seek Mr. Birdie! No wonder you beat Mr. Hero!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Revali muttered and went back to ignoring the creature.

He finished the tea this time using the correct sugar jar and turned around to see Urbosa looking at him like he grew a second head and Zelda just looking oddly smug.

“Yes I think that vacation will do you some good, Revali,” Urbosa finally commented.

“It’s not necessary. Besides, where would I even go?”

“Lurelin’s nice this time of year,” Zelda suggested. “Have you ever even been to the sea? It’s beautiful and there’s all sorts of exotic seafood to try.”

Hmm, well that was an intriguing thought.

He brought the cup over to Zelda and she accepted it gratefully. Then she whispered something that caused all of his feathers to rise. “ _Hide and seek was it?_ Yes, truly the game of Champions.”

“I will depart immediately,” he said in embarrassment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There was a delay because there was this one chapter I wanted to write before this one but I just couldn't muster up the energy. It was even less heavy on the revalink and all I wanted to write about was a pining bird. Then the other day I was like, "Wait. You don't HAVE to write that chapter." AND SO I DIDN'T. I guess I'll say I was debating having Revali try to follow his own advice to Link and go to Rito village but ultimately chicken out and return to the castle in immense shame. (and a bunch of other stuff would happen while he was out there but who knows, it might still fit into the story somewhere else)


	13. Chapter 13

He had left the next morning and arrived in Lurelin by noon.

Having never walked on a sand beach before, he couldn’t tell if he liked it or hated it. The way it clung to his talons felt decidedly dirty though, and being as fastidious with grooming as he was, he found that part slightly unpleasant.

In the afternoon, he had a late lunch of grilled armoured porgy. Not necessarily better than the fish he was used to, but he could appreciate the novelty of the taste. These tropical fish were disappointingly less fatty than the typical cold-water Hebra equivalents like hearty salmon but at the very least, it was a dramatic improvement to the hylian bass Central Hyrule seemed to prefer. He couldn’t understand why anyone would consider that tough and bland fish a delicacy.

Then after eating, well… he was bored.

There wasn’t too much to actually ‘do’ in town. He’d admit he was at a bit of a loss of how to spend idle time. _‘Idle’_ had never been a word to describe him in his entire life.

How short could his vacation be before he returned back to the castle?

At the very least, he did like looking out at the water. He’d admit the sight was worth the trip if nothing else.

The ocean was equal parts beautiful and terrifying. Usually when something looks like it goes on forever, all one has to do is fly up into the sky to see the other side but no matter how far up Revali soared, the horizon stayed a flat blue.

A strange shiver shot up his spine at the notion of flying towards that distant sky. At what point of flying out would he reach the point of no return? He imagined the horror scenario of getting tired and having nowhere to perch, of looking back and realizing blue now extended infinitely in every direction.

He had heard from Zelda that Hylians had that same mix of dread and excitement when standing by a high ledge in which they’d have no chance of surviving a fall. He hadn't really been able to understand that feeling until now however.

He took to lazily flying around the general area for the rest of the day. Scoping out the place for items of interest he could revisit later. The village itself was rather small, there were ruins a bit to the east he might be persuaded to visit if it came to that… which it probably would. Again, there REALLY was not much else to do.

By the time it neared sunset, he had a pretty good mental map of the area. He decided on a whim to head up the small mountain by the village. The sunset would probably look the best from the top.

Partway up though, he noticed a pond with a peculiar shape. Like a heart. Or at least that Gerudian symbol for a heart. It was a shape that had only started to trickle into Rito culture when he was young. It had become trendy with the Hylians by then and the Hylian merchants found a way to capitalize on the rito tradition of braiding lover’s hair feathers by selling them ‘heart’ shaped beads.

He thought it was a silly thing. The symbol used to represent ‘life’. In ancient texts and fairy tales it was the shape of the life containers the Goddess Hylia bestowed upon the worthy. Somewhere down the line the shape was stolen and repurposed to represent a heart, and the feeling of love- which was also, frankly, confusing. The rito had always believed love came from the mind instead, thus why cresting was such an intimate action.

There was a hylian-shaped figure down by the pond and in an instant, despite the heavy cloak, and far distance, Revali identified him on instinct and found himself diving over.

Link was seemingly attempting to sneak up on a fairy and Revali, feeling the sudden urge to ruin his day, landed with a very intentional thud and whirlwind of gust. All of the little magical creatures floating over the pond made quick, alarmed escapes.

Link reeled around to glare but was caught dumbstruck instead.

“Re-vali?” He asked, arms that had been raised a little in indignation dropping limply to his sides. Most of his face was still hidden by the cloak but his jaw was notably slack in awe.

“For your information, this was the reaction I had originally expected back on Medoh,” Revali commented. “Though I must say you’re being a bit dramatic- it’s only been a year.”

“Uh yeah,” Link said, scratching the back of his head, “I guess.”

There was an awkward smile across his lips as he remained unable to look up to meet the rito’s eye.

“You’re being oddly bashful today.”

“I’m just… happy to see you,” Link admitted. He finally lowered his hood and Revali gave him a good look over.

His hair was longer now, reaching his shoulder blades where it once only grazed the nape of his neck. It might even have been longer, but it was too matted up to fully show its true length. The blond colour looked a little darker. It was either damp or greasy- something impossible to tell just on sight alone but it definitely seemed slick at the scalp. His tanned skin was mottled with dirt and sand and Revali had to sigh. He was more feral than ever. He supposed that meant Link never did find home in a settlement- he could hardly stand amongst civilized people looking _like that_.

Link started to slowly approach Revali and the closer he got, the more filthy he looked. His clothes under his cloak were stained with colours the rito preferred not to think about.

Finally brightening up from his strange awe, Link grinned widely and started to laugh, although the laugh still sounded a bit nervous for whatever reason. “Of all of the places to see you again. It’s funny that it’s here, huh?”

“Why?” Revali asked, unamused and clearly not understanding what he meant. “On this mountain? _In this region?_ I suppose the tropics are an unusual place to find a rito.”

“Uh no,” Link said with some surprise. “Y-you don’t know where we are right now?” He asked, eyes flashing to the heart-shaped pond beside them. Now he was _stuttering_. What was with this sudden nervousness? It was setting Revali on edge.

“Did you hit your head?” He asked, starting to get annoyed with the indirect conversation. “I knew there wasn’t a lot going on in there to begin with, but you seem to be particularly daft at the moment.”

Link smiled at him, blue eyes still shining with a crystalline clearness, juxtaposed with all of the grime.

“Look at you,” Revali breathed. He stepped one pace closer and brought up his wing tip to a free lock of Link’s hair. The hylian practically shuddered, eyes fluttering in surprise.

Mystery solved. It wasn’t wet, his hair was greasy. Without a second thought, Revali pushed him into the pond in disgust.

There was a loud splash and the hero resurfaced a moment later, spluttering in surprise. “What was that for?!”

“You were in desperate need of a wash. I was doing you a favour.”

Link just glared at him, treading water. “I’ll have you know I go swimming at least once a day- and… um Hylians don’t bathe in clothes.”

“Yes, but your clothes needed washing as well so this seemed efficient.” Revali moved to the edge of the pond, sitting down and allowing his legs to dip into the water, thankful to finally clean off the sand and salt.

He continued to watch the Hylian who was now somewhat calmly floating in the center. He dove his head down a second time under the water and resurfaced. “Happy?” He asked.

“You believe that constitutes all of your grooming requirements?” Revali asked in disbelief.

“The dirt is off right?” Link asked, cocking his head.

Revali sighed. “Come here.”

Link looked at him curiously but slowly swam closer. He stopped a wingspan’s length away and began to tread water again with a questioning look.

“Closer,” the Rito sighed.

Link stared at him in bewilderment but complied.

Revali reached into his satchel and pulled out a few necessary items before looking at Link in irritation. “You’re still too far!”

The former knight tentatively inched over, staring at the rito the entire time, waiting for some signal to stop. The signal never came and eventually, his shoulders were bumping against Revali’s knees. The pond was oddly steep, such that even so close the to edge, Link still had to work to stay afloat, the effort now made difficult with Revali in the place of where he’d wade his arms.

“This is uh… this is a compromising position isn’t it?” Link asked in a high voice, struggling to keep his face above the surface with only the kicking action of his legs.

Revali was getting tired. “How do you suppose?”

“I’m trying to understand what you are asking of me here…” Link admitted. “I think there’s probably a misunderstanding…”

“Where is your mind going?” Revali asked dryly.

“Where it naturally would go when a guy without pants is trying to get my head between his legs,” Link admitted, ears turning a tinge red.

“I don’t understand what you mean,” Revali said. “Why would a rito wear pants?”

“Fair enough. I was correct. We are not on the same page here. I think I’d like to just drown then,” Link admitted and Revali for the life of him just wanted to know what the hell was going on. It was like there was a joke he wasn’t privy to and it was making him feel stupid.

“Is putting one’s head between another's legs some weird Hylian gesture? I haven’t witnessed such an action. Is it common?”

Now Link allowed himself to just give up completely and fall below the water's surface. There was an upwelling of bubbles before he resurfaced and admitted quietly. “If you’re lucky.”

After watching another few seconds of Link trying to kept himself afloat, Revali finally snapped. “For Goddess’ sake! Just find some way to steady yourself!”

In a panic, Link grabbed the rito's knees and his feathers immediately ruffled. “Yes…” He admitted. “I supposed that works.”

Link was now able to hold himself up so his eyes were level with Revali’s stomach instead, which seemed to relieve a bit of the former knight's odd tension. Revali grabbed the first bottle and poured some solution on Link’s head before massaging it into his scalp. Suds began to form and Link stared at Revali wide-eyed. “If you keep looking up at me like that, it’s going to get into your eyes.”

He quickly snapped his attention back down and apologized.

Revali continued to rub the shampoo through Link’s hair, making sure to get it in deep.

“You left without saying anything you know…” Link said suddenly.

“I beg your pardon?”

“From the woods last time. I woke up and you were just… gone.”

“I believe you had done the exact same thing to me only a day prior,” Revali commented dryly.

“I guess that’s true,” Link admitted. “But I didn’t know you then.”

“And you think that changed only a day later?” Revali asked, rolling his eyes.

“I do.”

Revali studied him. “Well, perhaps that’s true,” he finally admitted.

He let his wings frame the Hylian’s face for a moment. Link looked back up at him.

They held eye contact for a moment before Revali felt... something that annoyed him all over again and he dealt with that by pushing a wing into his insufferable little face and brutally dunking his head back under the water.

Link coughed again and was about to shout when Revali cut him off. “Just rinsing.”

He moved onto the conditioner but now Link was watching him suspiciously, ready for a repeat offence. It turned out there was a magic number of times you could try to drown him before you lost his trust. He kept his grip now tight and tense on the rito’s legs.

As Revali finished evenly applying the serum he scowled. “Fine, you can rinse it out yourself now.”

Link complied before swimming away and pulling himself out of the water only to remove his soaking wet clothes with immense difficulty. Rivulets of sand clung to his skin where the creases in the fabric of his tunic had been.

He sent Revali a look as he continued to stare but the rito had neither the hylian sense of shame nor privacy to care.

“Most people look away,” Link commented.

“You didn’t seem to mind when you forced Zelda to watch you run around that island in your briefs,” Revali commented.

“Didn’t realize she was watching,” Link muttered, surprisingly indifferent to this news. He lowered himself back into the water and wiped at his body.

He stepped out soon after and swiftly pulled out a clean set of clothes to dress in.

“Good?” Link asked.

Absolutely not.

“What sort of upbringing did you even have?” Revali squawked.

“Don’t know,” Link admitted.

Right. That. Well, Revali couldn’t fault him for _that_. He was stuck thinking of Link as a well-adjusted adult male which he certainly wasn't.

“I don’t even have Hylian-type hair and even I know you have to comb it while it’s wet," he said.

Link groaned.

Oh Goddess what thought just crossed Revali’s mind. He shouldn’t… but maybe it was innocent if he just thought of Link as a hatchling who couldn’t take care of himself…

“You do have a comb yes?” He prompted. It didn’t HAVE to mean anything.

“Yeah,” Link said.

“Well grab it and follow me. I’m missing the sunset.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah yeah yeah yeah, 'nother chapter DONE. It was easy given it was part 1 of the obligatory grooming scene all Revalink fics LEGALLY must include. Not the most original plot point but whatevs. Hata's gunna be hatin'


	14. Chapter 14

When they reached the mountain’s peak, the sun was already half-hidden behind the horizon. The water was now a deep rippling grey and the sky, several shades of a warm orange he had never quite seen anywhere other than in the glowing magma of Daruk’s hometown. (Somewhere he had sworn off ever returning to)

“Well,” Revali said, evaluating the view for a moment before taking a seat, “we might as well get started.” When there were no immediate movements from Link. He turned to see the Hylian looking at him in confusion.

He sighed dramatically and held out a wing. “Comb?”

Link looked down at the simply-carved wooden item in his hands before slowly handing it to Revali, still clearly bewildered. The ape-man seemed to be hopeless at context clues and this was making an already miserably awkward situation all the more painful.

“Now sit,” he commanded impatiently, and Link nodded before plopping down next to him. He tried to look at Revali in silent question but the rito quickly forced the Hylian’s head in the other direction. “If I’m going to get through that bird’s nest before it gets dark, we’re going to have to start immediately.”

Finally understanding what was happening, Link turned around such that his back was facing the rito and he inched a little closer.

Good.

Revali eyed the mess, it looked somewhat more manageable when it was wet but he wasn’t going to be fooled, this was a huge undertaking. The density of the knots was masked by the way the water weighed the hair down.

He tentatively tried to run the comb through, and it immediately caught. No matter how much he tugged and yanked it wouldn’t budge. Link protested with small yelps of pain and even tried to escape the torture a few times but Revali would quickly usher him back down, pressing on his shoulder with his other wing.

“Fine,” He finally conceded. “I’ll be more gentle, just stay put. This _HAS_ to be done you know. You can’t keep walking around like this.”

Link settled down again with a huff, no doubt glaring out at the rippling water.

This time Revali went slower, he took the smallest sections of hair he could separate out before picking at the knots lightly with the upper teeth of the comb.

After a few minutes of perfecting this technique, he got it down to a science that caused minimal protests from the other ‘man’.

Thirty minutes into the endeavour, the worst of the mats were out. The comb now managed to make a few relatively smooth glides through the golden locks. Link’s shoulders had been tensed up to his ears up until this point but he slowly relaxed and even began to lean back to better enjoy the massage of the wooden teeth against his scalp.

“Don’t you feel so much better?” Revali asked.

“It’ll just tangle up in a day out in the bush again,” Link said stubbornly.

“Well then don’t go out into the bush!” The rito replied. “Or cut it. Or braid it, there are so many solutions over having crows land on your head because they think it’s a home!”

He ran his last rake through the golden tresses and eyed the hair with a moral and philosophical conundrum.

He’d already come this far…

…and he’d put so much work in, it would be such a waste if Link messed it up within the hour.

Mind made up, he began to partition the hair into equal parts and pulled out a spare ribbon from his satchel.

At the sound of the rummaging, Link started to turn his head and Revali quickly forced it back. “Don’t move.” 

He was right, the hair was a little longer now that it was untangled and damp. It ran to almost to the bottom of his shoulder blades. Perhaps Link did need a cut, the dead ends looked to be what was giving him the most of his troubles. Rito hair was less brittle being more elastic and feather-like so he hadn’t known hair to even be capable of breaking like this.

He restarted his work separating out the locks again as his previous attempt had been undone by Link’s earlier movement. Once that task was done, he slowly began to wind the pieces together. Link leaned back, completely relaxed. “Mm, that feels good.”

“DON’T SAY THAT!” Revali squawked in embarrassment. “Goddesses! This is compromising enough as it is! I’m just preserving my work, don’t make it weird.”

“ _This_ is what you find compromising?” Link asked in surprise. “You BATHED me earlier.”

“Just shut up.”

Who would have thought in a hundred years that would be a phrase he would one day utter to him.

He kept the braid simple, just a single one behind the hylian’s back. Quick and dirty with as little ‘feeling’ as he could muster. It helped to just NOT THINK ABOUT IT TOO HARD. He finished in a matter of seconds before he tied the ribbon at the tip and admired his work.

So fast and yet still somehow so masterful.

Though who would have expected any less?

Link, sensing the work’s completion allowed a hand to reach back and run over the ridges of the braid.

“Now it shouldn’t tangle,” the rito explained.

“Uh, yeah… thanks,” Link said. They sat for a moment at a loss for what to do next.

Should he just say his goodbyes and go? It was getting late… he probably should get onto finding a place to sleep for the night.

“So Revali…” Link said, breaking the silence and interrupting his thoughts. “What _are_ you doing here?”

Suddenly the rightful outrage flared back up. “I’ve been exiled! Can you believe it!” He squawked, flapping out his wings in indignation, “and they dare call it a vacation as if I had a choice in the matter!”

Link turned around to watch his theatrics as he continued to bemoan the state of the Hylian army and all of the reasons he believed himself justified in his behaviour. He did not hold back in a fifteen minute rant gone sideways about Urbosa and why she shouldn’t theoretically have any authority over him.

For someone who could never sit still, Link listened rather well. Probably just content that the outrage wasn’t directed at HIM for once.

When he finally finished his explanation, detours and all, Link finally chimed in. “So you’re just… waiting here until you can go back?”

“Of course. I’ll give it a week, fly back and say how ‘rested’ I now feel so I can just put this all behind me and get back to work.”

Link glanced away and up to the moon that was finally starting to make an appearance in the last lights of day.

“Do you mind… if I wait with you?”

Revali looked at him speechlessly. He obviously didn’t mind at all of course. There was nothing in this world he hated more than prolonged solitude, but he resisted admitting that.

“I… suppose I can’t control whether you decide to stay or go. I have no dominion over this beach.”

Link grinned. “Great. I hope I’ll help you starve off the boredom at least a bit.”

“Good luck with that,” Revali said, the statement more intended to be a dig at the village than anything else.

A weird apprehensive knot curled up in his stomach though. He hoped he wouldn’t regret this. He was finally starting to come around on Link. It would be tragic if this vacation ended up being ‘too much time together’ and caused irreparable harm to their shaky relationship.

What if he hated him again by tomorrow and was stuck with him for the rest of the trip? Worse, what if he hated him again by tomorrow and there was one less connection he had in this new world where he could already count his number of friends on one wing?

He had already given his permission, it couldn’t be retracted now anyway.

They didn’t bother going into the village that night. Instead, they set up camp near the northern base of the mountain where there were some appropriate trees for a hammock to be set up.

Link prepared a fire and laid out a mat nearby to rest by the heat. He quickly dozed off practically the moment his head hit the ground. Honestly, enviable. Revali always had difficulty sleeping, but unlike his usual nights of troubled thoughts and an aching heart, he didn’t mind basking in the moment for a while. It was… so nice to have someone else nearby for once. He looked at the image of the curled up hylian for a moment before he turned onto his back and closed his eyes…

The pair awoke in the far-too-early morning to a terrible cloud burst that lead to the both of them having to frantically gather up their stuff and dash for cover.

The first place they could reach was a shrine perched above the village. The storm quickly wore itself out by dawn.

With vigor and a sudden desire for cash, they spent that first day hunting. Being able to fly, the task was primarily Revali’s while Link set on cleaning and preparing the meat the rito brought back before cooking it into skewers.

The goats and buffalo that roamed the region supplied some rather good cuts and they made a small fortune. Enough to allow them to rent out a hut for the week to avoid future weather-related incidents.

It was better than staying in a hotel and Link happily allowed Revali to keep every window open at night to give the place the same open-air feeling as a nest in Rito village. 

Revali was loathe to admit it, but things were a lot more fun with the hylian around.

Link seemed to know all of the locals rather well too. It seemed he had free reign to borrow rafts from the village and he convinced Revali to get on one after a ton of coaxing. The rito did not trust the rocking death trap for his life. He informed Link he would have no squabbles flying off and leaving him there if something went wrong. Link agreed to these terms a little too quickly and Revali was forced to step abord, talons sinking deep into the wood.

As the raft did not immediately fall apart at sea and continued to stay afloat, Revali got less nervous and eventually agreed to try to sail it with a miniature version of his gale. 

To Revali, this ended up being a terrible mistake. To Link, this was the greatest decision ever. He cackled with manic glee as the vessel tore across the water, skipping like a stone as it cut over waves. They visited the fabled eventide island of Zelda’s stories and even attempted a flying obstacle course set up by another rito who ‘dreamt of emulating the wind’.

Revali sure left him speechless and with some new aspiratory goals to reach. 

Link was surprisingly talented with that confounded paraglider contraption of his as well.

That was... a good day.

The fear he had that they were going to hate one and other in time was all but forgotten.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ug it's so late but I just wanted to finish this chapter before bed. I can barely type. No doubt despite the re-reads I'm going to realize this was full of mistakes in the morning but I just couldn't wait XD I'm always too quick to publish.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Far too much platonic cuddling for this story to still be plausible, but the author is WEAK

On the third morning, Revali woke up later than normal to the intense sound of rain pounding on the roof and the most delectable smell.

Link was hunched over the cooking pot and there was a distinct sizzling noise that managed to rouse the weary rito from his hammock.

Link’s ears twitched, acknowledging the rustling of feathers on fabric. “Good morning,” he murmured quietly, not bothering to cast his gaze away from his careful work.

“Morning,” Revali parroted back, still half-asleep. He glanced over the former knight’s shoulder lethargically.

Beautifully cut fillets of fish were frying on the pan above the fire, sprinkles of rock salt were slowly dissolving on top of the meat. His stomach suddenly felt sick with hunger.

“I ran out earlier before the rain got too bad and bought some porgy from the market…” Link said. “I figured maybe we could have seafood rice balls for breakfast? I’m almost done.”

There was already a cooked bowl of rice to Link’s left and a few completed balls on a plate to his right, expertly shaped and wrapped with seaweed. Link picked out chunks of fish as they were adequately cooked through and rolled and wrapped them up in the same manner.

Was Link… a good cook?

It was an unexpected quality in the hylian considering he seemed so… non-domesticated. He wouldn’t have been too surprised at this point if he had learned that the grubby little creature lived only off of meat skewers and raw plants alone.

“I’m almost done, you can help yourself to the already finished ones,” Link said.

He wasn’t going to protest that. He tried one and… ritos don’t even like rice that much but this was still the best thing he had ever tasted.

“You had said you came here to try out the seafood,” Link explained almost apprehensively. “I felt bad because we’d only had the extra meat skewers the one day and those hastly fire-charred crabs the next since we were so busy…I know a few recipes, sorry if they’re too simple…”

“It’s adequate,” Revali said and then found that the response had him feeling surprisingly disappointed with himself. “…good,” he admitted painfully.

The electric smile Link sent him showed that the weight of the compliment did not fly over his head. While Revali suddenly wanted to crawl into a hole and DIE, he also felt rather satisfied.

“G-good. I actually… really like to cook so that’s… nice to hear,” Link scratched at his nose in equal embarrassment. It would almost have sounded like he was brushing the praise off but his ears were now standing noticeably more perky.

Link really was an enigma. He refused any and all recognition for his work as a hero but was simply beaming after an _almost_ kind word about his cooking.

If this was all it took to make him feel genuinely proud, Revali supposed he could _try_ to make an effort to praise or reward him a little more often… when he deserved it. If only to draw that lop-sided grin out again.

Link glanced outside. “It doesn’t look like the rain is going to let up for a while. I gathered enough ingredients in case we have to stick it out for lunch too.”

Revali followed his gaze. The grey storm clouds drew a long line out from the ocean in towards shore. He had never seen anything quite like it. They really were likely trapped inside for the day.

He was all the more thankful they had splurged for the rental hut.

They cleaned up after the meal and Revali glanced at Link’s now incredibly messy braid. After yesterday’s activities, it was just barely hanging on, entire locks having already slipped out. It needed re-doing. He felt a little hot at the thought and quickly scolded himself.

Link was a HYLIAN male. Why did he have to keep reminding himself of this? Goddess up above he needed to start spending more time with his own people.

“Well now is as good a time as any to wash up.” Revali said.

Link looked at him in shock. “Now?? But we just did that a few days ago!”

The rito rolled his eyes and undid his own braids, trying not to notice the way the other man stared at his loose hair. _Again: HYLIAN. MALE._ _He’s not looking at you like that._

Hylians only do pairings between men and women because they are boring and stuffy and live for the sole purpose of explosively and unnecessarily populating the world at the speed of rabbits. A hundred years ago before the calamity, they were practically vermin upon the land.

With great resignation, Link undid his own hair as well, which was a much simpler task of pulling the one ribbon and the few strands that had actually been remaining tied back toppled down, grateful for the merciful release.

Revali ushered Link out to the wrap-around balcony where he had two buckets sitting just out from the rooftop’s protection gathering water.

“Do ritos even bathe with water?” Link asked.

“Of course we do!” Revali snapped.

He let Link tend to himself this time, sharing the bottles of conditioner and shampoo between them. He was sure he could handle at _least_ that much.

Instead he focused on himself. It was hard to believe he let himself go to bed dirty the other night but they had been so exhausted the energy simply hadn’t been there to groom. Revali unclasped his tunic and allowed the armour to fall to the wood.

Efficiently he dunked a rag in the water and ran it over his body feathers in brisk downward strokes before he then focused on the treatment of his hair.

When that was done, he set to preening. It was a long and arduous task (He had a LOT of feathers) but it had become so routine to his everyday life that he barely thought about it anymore. Moving through the practiced motions was entirely muscle memory at this point. In fact, it took more effort to _not_ do it subconsciously in front of others.

He knew Hylians for sure liked to laugh at how ‘animal-like’ it was. To an extent that rito usually prefer to keep it to themselves, just as they choose to hide most of their culture from judging outsiders.

He focused his attention on picking and plucking at the feathers of his wing with his beak, ensuring the barbs were all in perfect order. He paused only when he caught Link staring. _Of course._ While in regular banter it was _fine,_ but if he made a comment about him being ‘bird-like’ in this moment, things were going to get _bloody_ in this hut.

The knight quickly returned to his own task but ended up commenting. “Your stomach feathers are white.”

Not what he was expecting.

“An astute observation from the great hero once again!” He said sarcastically and then paused. “Sorry.”

“Sorry?” Link asked in surprise.

“Sorry,” he muttered again. He didn’t want to talk to him like that anymore. It just made him feel… dirty from the inside out. It was hard to fight that defensive reflex though.

As they both finished up, he found Link edging closer.

“What is it now? Revali asked, emptying the bath water out into the sand below.

“Can I… try doing your braids this time?” Link asked innocently and heat **darted** through the rito’s body. He wanted to immediately scream _‘NO’_ but something stopped him. He tried to think rationally. If he made a big deal of it now, he’d be letting Link know about the line they had _definitely crossed_ the other day. Only family and lovers braid each other’s hair.

Well… Link was a champion. The champions were kind of like family right?

“I suppose you could try,” he said and shuffled on the spot until his back was to the former knight.

He held his breath. Oh Goddess. What was he doing? This was insane. How desperate and pathetic was he?

The thoughts of regret melted in an instant as he felt a pair of hands run through his hair. Then he just felt like crying instead which made him feel pathetic for a whole other reason.

“It’s feathery,” Link said in surprise. “Really downy soft…”

“Mm,” Revali agreed in a daze.

How long had it been? He had never had a partner so the last person to touch his hair like this had been his late mother. It felt so good. It felt so nostalgic. An itching thought made itself known for a second that this might technically be taking advantage of Link…

He didn’t care. He didn’t even complain when it took the hero ages to do and redo each of the ties as he tried to figure out the weaving and pulling motions involved in braiding.

“It’s weird right?” Link asked. “It feels really good when someone else is doing your hair.”

“Mhm.”

“Wow, the great Revali is finally feeling subdued,” Link teased. “I think I found your weakness.”

 _Yeah…_ From behind, he didn’t see the look of shame cross the rito’s eyes.

Link slowed. “It’s funny, normally you’re the one filling in silence like this. I don’t usually talk this much. Ah- I think they’re done.”

Link pulled away and allowed for Revali to test their sturdiness. Not bad. Not exactly to his calibre, he doubted they’d survive a gale but he supposed he could handle being less than perfect for a day. _To give the world a break from his usual radiance._

This rain didn’t seem to show any sign of stopping anyway. They might not be leaving the hut any time soon. The rest of the world seemed to have the same idea. Doors were closed, windows were shuttered, the village had locked themselves away for the day. There wasn’t a soul outside other than the two men on the deck, watching the sky waterfall down to Earth.

The ocean was rough and choppy, the gradient between horizon and water was blurred by dull grey.

He supposed with the successful completion of the four braids on his own head that this meant Link was now more than capable of doing his own hair… he shouldn’t offer.

“Could you do mine again?” Link asked.

Revali did so immediately. This time he added some intricacy to the braid. DEFINITELY not because he wanted to linger longer. Hylian’s just had such an interesting hair texture and larger scalps… maybe he just wanted to experiment with all of this extra hair? Yeah, that was what it was.

He tightly braided the right side of Link’s head, joining it at the back with the rest of his hair as he deftly weaved another perfectly-proportioned single braid.

He had only just dropped his wings from his intricate work before Link immediately fell back into Revali’s stomach feathers in bliss.

“You’re pushing your luck here,” Revali lied.

“But you haven’t batted me away yet,” Link commented.

“I assure you I’m seconds away from pushing you out into the rain,” he lied again.

“You’re bluffing.”

“What makes you say that?” Revali asked, masking his panic at being read so easily.

“You wouldn’t have warned me. You would have just done it if you minded this,” Link explained.

Cheeky, smug little brat. 

Well… he did cook him breakfast… and did his braids. Revali _had_ already resolved to reward him more often.

“You are the most clingy, touch-starved Hylian I have ever met.” He commented. “It doesn’t suit your nomadic lifestyle at all.” He rested his wings on his knees in a way that clearly showed that Link had been right and there would be no shoving anyone off of the deck and into a face-full of sand.

But only because he had JUST forced the boy to bathe.

Link had been watching his body language keenly and when he saw the signs of surrender, he nuzzled deeper into the soft chest and closed his eyes lazily.

Revali wanted to beg any of the Goddesses to come down and help him. This just wasn’t fair.

He let it slide in the great forest because Link had been upset and cold but they clearly needed to have a _very important_ talk about the nuzzling.

… later.

For lunch Link made porgy meuniere, and Revali wondered briefly if this was an intentional homage to the beloved Rito Village recipe of salmon meuniere- which of course had him wondering just how much time the hero had spent there over the continuation of his travels. Did a rito teach him the recipe? Link seemed to be an unofficial member of every town he entered, he supposed it wasn’t a surprise that he was welcomed into Rito Village to the same capacity.

Revali knew that he himself would never again be able to walk up those spiralling boardwalks with the same freedom Link had been given. The rito were logical, straight-forward folk. They would not believe him if he said he rose from the dead.

He had warned Zelda as much, such that when she visited the village to announce she was rebuilding Hylian society, he had advised her to call herself a descendant of the royal family.

If he wanted to ever personally walk and live amongst them again, he’d have to lie about every part of himself- and even then he’d be a stranger who hadn’t grown up in the village. An oddity of a rito. An outsider.

This porgy dish was good. It almost tasted like home, and almost like home was as good as he could ever hope to get now.

It was a little past five when the rain finally ceased.

Revali grimaced as they stepped outside and he lifted his feet distastefully. “I loathe wet sand.”

“Someone needs to make shoes for ritos,” Link commented.

“It’s hard to imagine a cobbler creating something functional enough. We have much more flexible joints.”

Link paused as an idea hit him. “What if we just put two deflated octoballoons on either foot like socks?”

“Absolutely not,” Revali scoffed. What a ridiculous image. Exactly the kind of thing Link would think up though. “I used to wonder if you had any thoughts running through that tiny, pea-sized brain of yours,” he teased. “What a _disappointment_ finally seeing inside has turned out to be.”

Link paused again but not as before. He went entirely stiff. Noticing the alarm in the hero’s eyes. Revali quickly scanned their surroundings, expecting danger.

There was nothing and so he turned back to Link in concern. “Link? Link, are you okay?”

Link quickly recovered and nodded.

“What was that?” Revali asked.

“I just remembered something,” Link admitted. “It happens from time to time.”

Link started walking down to the shore and Revali quickly followed.

“What did you remember?” He asked.

“It wasn’t anything important,” Link said. “Not every memory is something ground-breaking. Sometimes people just say stuff and it sounds like something I heard before.”

That left Revali… unsettled. A little queasy. The only thing that happened was him jokingly insulting him. Did Link remember one of the times he said something similar in a… less lighthearted way?

“So you’re… alright?” Revali asked, trying to gauge if the memory made Link angry, whatever it was.

“Yeah,” Link said.

That didn’t help, Link was just naturally curt. He was walking rather fast, was he trying to get some distance between them? Probably not, Link always walked briskly, if not just ran everywhere.

His ears were in a neutral position and unless he suddenly learned in the last moment how to control them it meant…. Everything was fine right?

“Crab!” Link announced suddenly and dashed over to catch a Razor Claw crab that had started scuttling away from the pair.

The boy turned to Revali with a bright smile, holding the dangling creature up, entirely apathetic to the razor-sharp claws that were the animal’s namesake.

He hadn’t been mad. He had been thinking about dinner. _Typical._

Now onboard, Revali helped him find a few more crabs as Link enthusiastically described different dishes he could make.

They ate that night to the point of feeling bloated and then blew some of the money they had made on the eventide island flying course at the gambling house that night.

Revali’s apprehension had completely subsided… until it was one AM and he was once again laying awake in his hammock. His mind was doing that thing it liked to do where it came up with every single thing it could think of to stop him from sleeping. Tonight it was focused like a guardian’s laser on Link’s selective memory gains.

How often did Link remember things? What did he remember so far?

If he kept remembering moments from their past, would he come to hate him for all the things he had said? It wouldn’t be surprising.

Would every good moment they had together always be overshadowed by sudden unpleasant memories of the past made to be experienced as new?

When was Link going to remember something that he wouldn’t forgive? What if he already had and was just keeping quiet about it?

Revali sat up in defeat. The old shack groaned with the movement and Link snapped awake, having jumped to his feet in an instant. (the instincts one had to have to live out in the wilderness alone)

Then he saw Revali and relaxed.

“What happened?” Link asked.

“Nothing.”

“But you’re sitting there awake?”

“Can’t sleep.”

Link studied him for a moment, a concerned look flashing across his face in the moonlight. “Is this… calamity stuff? Did you have a bad dream?”

Revali sighed. “No. This is just me stuff. I’ve always been like this.”

“So… what’s wrong?”

“I just think too much.”

“Well… what are you thinking about? Would it help to talk?” Link asked, still seemingly at a loss.

“It’s nothing. If I wasn’t thinking about this, I’d be thinking about something else.”

“Have you ever tried to talk about what you were thinking about though?”

“No.”

“Then try me.”

“Link,” Revali finally sighed. “What did you remember?”

Link stared at him in confusion. As if to say _‘that’s it?’_

Yeah, that was it… he wasn’t proud of it either. He knew it was a gross over-reaction, but it was a gross-over-reaction he had no control over.

“It really was nothing…” Link said. “That’s why I didn’t mention it. You just said some stuff to me.”

That was exactly what he was scared of. Revali _hadn’t_ lost _his_ memory. He knew exactly what sort of things he used to say to him. “But it wasn’t pleasant was it?”

“No,” Link admitted.

Revali sighed and looked down at his wingtips folded in his lap.

“You weren’t the only one who talked to me like that,” Link protested. “Everyone did. Zelda certainly did at first too.”

“But she came around,” Revali argued. “Redeemed herself, and you still won’t go near her.”

"That’s not why I haven’t returned to her. I don’t hate her, I just hate that life,” Link argued, then paused, “but more importantly, you _don’t_ think you’ve redeemed yourself in the exact same way by now?”

Revali had been silent and so wrapped up in his brooding he hadn’t noticed Link approach until the hammock started rocking as the Hylian attempted to crawl on.

“What are you doing?!” Revali protested as their combined weight had them crash into each other in the VERY sunken middle. _Hylians and their fat bones._

“This wasn’t what I meant to do,” Link tried to explain as they continued to shift and stumble around. “I was just trying to sit beside you! I didn’t know how bouncy and sinky hammocks were!”

“are you an idiot?” Revali cried flapping about unhelpfully as his feathers were messed.

Link was falling all over him as he attempted to escape the net. Finally he fell in defeat, squashed next to the rito by gravity as he wore himself out.

“Well I guess you are ‘beside me’. Congratulations on that.”

“It’s too late in the night to figure this mess out,” Link sighed. “Let me sleep here?”

“Absolutely not! It’s too cramped! How am I supposed to sleep?!”

“You weren’t anyway!”

“I guess not,” Revali sighed, the fight finally leaving him too.

“I won’t hate you no matter what I remember,” Link said suddenly.

“You say that, because you don’t remember what you don’t remember.”

“Well you’re sorry about it all now right?”

“I am.”

“Then it’s all water under the bridge. You’re not the same guy. I’m _definitely_ not the same guy, so it doesn’t even really feel personal when I view the memories. It’s just like watching a play I’m not in,” Link said.

He felt the Hylian nestle into his side. _Link… friends don’t do this._ If he kept always pulling things like this, Revali was going to start misunderstanding.

“Did it help?” Link asked.

“Did what help?”

“Does your mind feel a little clearer?”

Revali didn’t reply.

“Well, what’s this new thought that took its place?”

“I miss Rito Village.”

Link nodded. “I know.”

“I lost to the Windblight.”

Link stroked his wing, fixing the feathers he had tousled earlier in his struggles. “Yeah.”

“It’s embarrassing.”

“It’s not.”

“Thanks for doing my braids.”

“Your welcome?” Link said with a bewildered smile.

“… but you shouldn’t do it again.”

“Why?”

“I don’t want to say.”

“Alright then. I'll stop," Link promised and Revali's heart sunk. Then he finally understood why the Gerudos thought love was attached to the heart and it broke a little more.

“And I’ll permit you leaning on me, but there will be no further ‘cuddling’ okay?”

There was a definite pause before Link replied with a reluctant _“Fine.”_

A small victory dwarfed by the more obvious fact that they were now apparently sleeping together on the same hammock. This _still_ wasn’t what friends did. So why did it have to feel so right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote the braids and cuddling part and then thought about toning it down because I realized I was being excessive. Then I wrote night-time comfort cuddles session instead of changing any of that.
> 
> Last night I watched the new bachelorette pilot thinking Clare was FAR too desperate for hugs, now I've written this and am like "gee am I worse?"
> 
> (Also Link doing Revali's braids was inspired by voldydoitsu saying "the obligatory grooming part of revalink fics are usually the other way around" - I listen and I give XD )


	16. Chapter 16

The week flew by too fast after that.

Link and Revali spent their last day laying sprawled on the beach. _Lounging of all things_. Revali had never been known to lounge a day in his life but his body was filled with so many aches and pains, he couldn’t possibly bring it to do anything else. He assumed Link was in the same predicament. The hot sand was absolutely heavenly on his sore muscles though. The ocean breeze helped prevent him from over-heating under all of his winterized feathers too- although there had been a few times he had to painfully get up and wade into the cold water when the sun got to be too much.

“This is your fault,” Link commented.

“Mine?!” Revali asked in indignation, then as always, brought his voice down to a snide simper. “I don’t believe _I_ was the one who agreed to that little side-quest.”

The day after the rainstorm, it seemed the boys _both_ had some pent-up stress to work out for whatever reason. (Well actually, Revali knew his reasons and it involved INTENSE EMBARRASSMENT AT THE EVENTS FROM THE NIGHT BEFORE coupled as well with the _unique_ feelings that waking up to another man half-straddling him in his sleep brought on.) What started as a simple request from a villager for their help in clearing out a Lizalfos encampment rapidly devolved into the wild genocide of all monster-kind in Faron, a ceaseless two-day onslaught of carnage.

Zelda hadn’t been wrong. Link was wild, sadistic and ruthless when it came to warfare.

Of course, Revali, the one rito to engage in target practice with literal bomb arrows was just about as bad.

Together the two were an almost demonic tag team.

It was their sense of competition of course that caused this to spiral as much as it had. Link had done in two albinos in the time it took Revali to shoot down the few green sentries and he simply couldn’t let that ‘fly’. He was already regretting the show of weakness from the night before and rightfully felt he now had something to prove.

He suggested they also deal with the bokoblin encampment north of town and when they got there, he rapidly despatched arrows in each of the monsters’ eyes before Link even had time to sneak to the nearest tree.

The look he had sent the rito seemed to mirror his own. _It was on._

Thank the Goddess that Zelda wasn’t able to watch anymore.

Their behaviour from there on was nothing short of manic.

Eventually they simmered down a little once they noticed there were no enemies left to defeat. They returned to the village, _shocked_ to find an impromptu banquet held in their honour. (Link was shocked, Revali thought the praise adequate)

The issue of course was the next morning when their bodies reminded them that they hadn’t exactly been in their war-time physical conditions anymore and that they had ABSOLUTLEY over-exerted themselves.

Still, it was surprisingly not a complete waste of a final day. There was something peaceful about laying fully spread out on the sand and just listening to the sounds of waves crashing again and again.

In their stillness, crabs scuttled by undisturbed by their presence. Revali was going to miss the taste of crab.

There are many tastes that are linked to times and places. Crab would always be the flavour of these couple of days.

Cranes continued their ceaseless cries and Link murmured “Your people.”

It was a call back of course to Revali making the same off-winged comment in the jungle to the sound of distant monkey calls so he couldn’t really get mad.

He apathetically let out a perfect imitation of a crane’s cry and from the corner of his eye, saw the hylian’s attention snap to him.

He glanced over, very much feeling the strain in his neck such a motion required.

Link was beaming.

“We rito are the most talented of hunters- _of course_ I can make a simple crane call,” Revali said.

“Do it again?” Link asked.

“No.”

“Fine,” Link sighed and turned his gaze back up to the clouds.

Revali noticed for the first time the way the Hylian’s hand was only inches from his wingtip. He ignored it.

“I can’t believe it’s the last day already,” Link commented.

Revali didn’t say anything, just sighed. He knew he’d gotten quieter. He had learned to bite back his automatic and ingenuine responses like _‘Well I sure can- every second with you is one second too long’_ but something like _‘Me neither’_ felt too exposing, too awkward and he wasn’t sure why. Maybe it just felt like it was too far a reach out of his carefully curated sense of character. At least when they were fighting monsters this unusual sensation of being tongue-tied was put on hold.

Link was looking at him searchingly. “Is something wrong?”

“No,” Revali said. “Everything's just peachy.”

“I’m going to miss this…” Link admitted.

“I’m sure you will,” Revali agreed. “I’m titillating company.”

Link sent him a wry smile, then it disappeared just as fast. “I-“ he started to say but faltered, and then stalled by clenching a fistful of sand only to let the silica slip through his fingers. “Tonight…” Link finally said. “There’s something I think I need to tell you... before you go.”

“Why delay? We’re here now,” Revali commented, for once bored of dramatizing every single little thing.

“Let’s just save it for tonight,” Link said quietly.

It was strange but also somehow fitting to end the vacation the exact way that they had started- watching the sunset over the ocean. It had been Link’s suggestion to work out their soreness with a casual hike up the mountain’s path. Revali would need to be in flying form the next day after all.

They didn’t say anything while they watched the sun drop into the ocean. 

Revali kept looking at the hero expectantly. Curious to what this long-awaited ‘thing’ he had to tell him was.

Link didn’t offer up any answer.

He’d have thought maybe he forgot if it weren’t for the tone of importance he had used when he first discussed the matter. Or the way Link now sat tense with a tight jaw.

“This really was fun... I always have a good time with you,” Link finally said.

“Right, of course,” Revali said dismissively. “I just hope that this time doesn’t come back to bite me in the way our last meeting did.”

Link looked at him in confusion.

“Those koroks,” Revali clarified. “They follow me EVERYWHERE.”

Link snickered, finally relaxing a little.

“Oh!” Revali said suddenly. “Right, while we’re here,” he rummaged in his satchel and pulled out his little bag of seeds before jamming it in Link’s hands. “Take these, I have no idea what to do with them and do not appreciate having them constantly forced upon me. They're _your_ problem now.”

Link opened the bag just enough to peek in and his eyes widened. “Are you sure?”

The rito scoffed. “What exactly makes them so valuable? Do you plant them?”

“Hetsu expands the size of my bag when I return these to him,” Link explained.

“That bag?’ Revali asked pointing at Link’s underwhelming pack. “It doesn’t look that large to me. You must not collect that many. I suppose it's not surprising given how you lost last time even with all that extra time I gave you.”

“Check inside,” Link said.

Revali opened the sack not expecting much but found it _much_ larger on the inside. There were multiple bows where he shouldn’t have been able to fit more than one at most. The same went for shields and swords. What caught his attention though was a scrap of paper nestled into a small sewn-in pocket that made it easily the most retrievable item in the bag.

He pulled it out curiously.

The paper was worn and appeared to have been wetted and dried many times, there were marks of dirt and a little bit of red that he suspected was probably blood partially faded from the newer water stains. As weathered as it looked though, it wasn’t crumpled. Link had refolded it along the same creases so many times it was fibres away from splitting at each of the folds. Revali carefully opened it.

_Be well. Don’t die or I’ll kill you, ~~you stupid monkey.~~_

_~~Love,~~ _

_-R_

Link’s startled “Wait!” as he had noticed what was in Revali’s wingtips came too late and the hylian looked nothing short of horrifyingly embarrassed. His face had turned the deepest pink Revali had seen to date. He wondered absently how it would look if he held a wildberry up to it, then promptly found one in Link’s bag and held it up to his face to compare.

The shades were nearly uncanny.

“Relax,” Revali finally said with a smirk, “I don’t see the cause for such embarrassment. This is the amount of importance I would expect a letter from the great Revali to get. I _am_ a legend you know. pass this on to your children why don’t you?” He popped the berry into his beak without asking. It wasn’t as fresh as the ones picked directly from the Hebra mountains, but was still sweet all the same.

“Not like I could have kids,” Link said under his breath.

An injury? Revali wouldn’t have been surprised. Perhaps that was the big secret that had stopped Link from being able to pursue Mipha, or even Zelda for that matter. Royalty required heirs. Given how little hylian trousers protected, he was surprised _more_ hylian warriors weren't rendered impotent. 

Link looked at the letter still in Revali’s possession. “That note saved me you know.”

"What?” Revali asked in surprise staring down at the innoculous little paper in his grasp as it there would suddenly be more to it.

“Monsters used to exist in more predictable locations during the blood moon,” Link said. “I got careless because I used to know where they’d spawn after the first time I killed them and other monsters wouldn’t move into their territories….”

Link lifted his shirt to show a particular scar along his ribs. “There was this sneaky lizalfos where I hadn’t expected one and he got a pretty rough swing in before I even knew he was there.”

He dropped his shirt back down and continued. “I got away but was bleeding pretty bad and I didn’t have Mipha’s grace anymore. I don’t know if I would have made it back to civilization if I didn’t read this note again and feel inspired to push forward.”

Revali looked at the paper with new horror. He had assumed the bloodstains weren’t Link’s own.

Link gingerly took the paper and carefully refolded it before putting it back in the special pocket of his bag.

Revali was still staring at his wings where the paper had been. “Of _course_ you could have made it anyway… I sleep well at night knowing you're too hopelessly feral to die out here,” He said. He _had_ to believe Link was an invulnerable idiot. It was the only way he’d be able to confidently leave him out here to his own devices.

Link gave him a teasing nudge. "When you say stuff like that- I almost think for a second the great Revali actually cares!"

Revali looked at him and realized this was another one of those moments where he'd hate himself later from responding too fast and too obviously. Instead, he gave himself time to think of a fitting response as he reached over and straightened out Link's wild hair with his fingers. It was messy since he'd resolved to not braid it anymore. A shame, but a necessary boundary to lay. He wiped off some sand that had hidden under the collar of his shirt as well. "Just take care alright? Don't be reckless."

Link was looking at him oddly. "And when you _do_ stuff like that...." He said quietly. "It makes me think you feel the way I do... and that maybe it's not all in my head."

“I don't know what you're-"

Link surged forward and pressed his lips to the very tip of Revali’s beak, which he had shut just in time.

When he pulled away, he looked at the rito a little nervous, a little ashamed, and maybe even a little hopeful. A vast array of emotions that suggested that strange gesture had actually meant something… and that he expected a response.

Revali would admit for a shameful moment when the hero had leaned in that he thought he was going to press his little forehead to his crest- which he supposed was a ridiculous notion once again brought forth from his own lonely imagination. No, instead he did _that_. Whatever _that_ was. No closer to an answer about what Link wanted to tell him he asked, “Why… did you do that?”

Link looked absolutely mortified and he realized whatever the hylian was hoping he’d say, it was DEFINITELY not that.

“You’re right,” Link said quickly and began closing up his bag with fumbling hands. “I- I don’t know. I really shouldn’t have. That wasn’t cool of me to do. You probably feel- I can't even imagine but I’m-so-sorry-I-should-go.”

Before Revali could even get a word in edgewise, Link had left.

He was baffled.

Did he go back to the hut? He decided to give him some time to cool down from whatever _that display_ _was all about._

When the rito finally did return to their lodgings for the night, he had expected to see Link sleeping in his little bed by the window.

He wasn’t there.

Link had gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so the misunderstandings begin, and honestly, will probs continue


	17. Chapter 17

The bright sunny day did not suit Revali’s mood at all.

He cracked his bleary eyes open, dazed by the unfortunate beams of morning light concentrated on his face.

He was so tired but a single thought as consciousness returned caused him to bolt upright and scan the bed on the other side of the hut. It was empty. Still.

He had stayed up last night waiting for Link to return.

After some time, when he still hadn’t come back, Revali even took a short midnight stroll outside to see if Link was out sulking somewhere. He didn’t exactly know _why_ Link had left but he had recognized the expression of pain at the very least. Link was _hurt_. He was hurt and it left an unfamiliar frantic feeling humming through the rito that urged him to go and attempt to ‘ _comfort’_ him, as weird as that sounded.

Of course, he wasn’t sure how successful he’d be. Revali had never been the most… emotionally available person. He was well aware he wasn’t exactly a ‘comforting’ presence to most people, but Link seemed to lean on him quite a bit and that felt…special.

He didn’t garner the admiration and praise anymore that he used to get in pre-calamity hyrule but it was odd how those small looks of appreciation Link sent him seemed to always have a way of making none of that matter. Maybe he never needed to be important to everyone… maybe one person was sufficient.

Specifically Link.

Being that one person that is.

It had made him miserable in the past when the stoic knight wouldn’t even grace him with a nod- and no amount of approval from anyone else ever seemed to make up for it.

Still, despite this morning’s unusual act of sincere introspection, he was still himself at his core and his concern for Link quickly evaporated to annoyance- as it was always eventually going to.

He was tired (thanks to _someone_ ), he was hungry (Said _someone_ had been carrying the extra crab meat they were going to cook in the morning), and his chest _hurt_ (thanks Link).

Yes, this indignation felt much more comfortable when put on, like well-worn armour.

How dare he? After making a fuss at the beginning of the week about how you ‘don’t just leave friends without saying goodbye’!

“Hypocrite,” He muttered under his breath, kicking the empty bed half-heartedly.

He had to make a trip to the market but he bought some porgy and fried it up himself. Ruefully, he could admit it wasn’t as good as usual. (How did Link do it? Damn him for being better at anything- Revali made a solemn vow to start practicing cooking)

After that disappointing final meal, he returned to the inn to check in his keys- metaphorically speaking, there were no doors but he was the paragon of proper manners when it counted _and_ _wasn’t someone to leave without saying anything._

If he was being honest, there was some slight hope up until this point that Link was still going to show- but he wasn’t very honest, so no, he was over it all by then, thank you very much.

Still, before taking off, he flew up to the top of the little outpost by the shore where the fishermen beached their canoes and let his eyes scan over the village in the light of day.

He did not see the blond he was by no means looking for but he did happen to see something else that was… _interesting._

A girl down below was squealing excitedly, the sound mixed with the enthusiastic barks of a dog.

One of the locals was petting the same black hylian retriever that seemed to have made it it's mission that week to sit outside their hut at all hours of the day. It had to have been Link’s fault of course, he had a suspicion the whole time that he had been feeding it.

He never understood the hylian race’s obsession with dogs, they were mangey sloppy things. However, what caught his attention was what the Lurelinian was _doing_ \- Burying her face on top of the dog's muzzle (inches from cresting!!! The outrage!) and pressing her lips repeatedly to its snout before nuzzling her nose into its neck. (inappropriate!!!)

He was down in an instant, standing several feet away with his wings crossed and a very baffled expression painted across his face.

It didn’t take long before one of the younger fishermen came over to join him. Link really had ruined his reputation in this village, he somehow made him seem far too ‘approachable’.

“Oh uh… Revali right?” The guy said. “I think I heard it was your last day, you heading out?”

“Yes, I’ve been away from important business for far too long,” he responded still watching the girl with the dog.

“Where’s your friend? He used to always pass through on his own but I gotta admit, it looks weird now to not see you guys together.”

“I’m not his keeper,” Revali said, rolling his eyes. “I couldn’t possibly guess.”

The man nodded slowly, clearly picking up on the tense undertone.

The girl was getting more and more frenzied, ruffling the dog’s ears. “I wuv you! I wuv you so much! I do! You’re a good girl! You are!” Her voice was almost _shrill_ as it serenaded the dog, she clapped its face between her hands.

“What in the golden goddesses’ three triangles is she doing over there?” Revali finally asked.

“Oh… you know how some people get with pets… it’s just her way of showing affection,” the man said.

The girl planted her lips right above the dogs nose with a loud ”MWAH” and finally parted, bidding tearful goodbyes and returning off to work. Huh. That had been that weird thing that Link had done the night before.

“So that thing she just did with her mouth…” Revali said uncertainly, not sure how to bring up the question.

“Oh the kiss? I guess it might look weird to another culture, sorry if it made you uncomfortable bro,” The fisherman looked slightly embarrassed. “It’s just how she is with dogs, but yeah, it's kind of over-the-top," he added under his breath, "I swear she loves that dog more than me."

Something dark and uncomfortable stirred in his stomach. “So… hylians _kiss_ their pets?”

“Uh, some do I guess?”

“So that was a platonic gesture to signify that weird overwhelming affection hylians seem to have for animals?” Revali asked, voice stiff.

“Oh Goddess! Yes!” The man panicked. “Platonic!! Sometimes animals are so cute girls just can’t help themselves!”

Revali felt like the entire world had just crumbled apart.

A pet…

He saw him as a pet…

He left immediately, whatever final lingering feelings tying him down to that place were cut.

So maybe he _had_ still been waiting for Link.

It was embarrassing and even a little pathetic but maybe he had _needed_ Link.

Maybe he needed the fact that it felt like Link had needed him.

As it turned out,

Revali was someone who needed to be needed.

His relationship with Link was certainly different than it had been with the rito; where he had been their champion. It was different than with Zelda too, where she needed a right-hand man as she rebuilt Hyrule. It was hard to put a finger on what exactly he and Link had but he had always been certain, for whatever reason, that Link had needed him.

He just hadn’t realized soon enough that it was as a therapy animal.

As pathetic as Revali apparently was, his last shreds of pride wouldn’t let himself willingly fall to that.

How hadn’t he seen it? Those touches… Link had just been petting him. The cuddles… the grooming… everything sacred to rito traditions- degraded to meaninglessness.

How humiliating.

This is why he had always hated hylians.

The feelings of self-loathing and inadequacy that usually only plagued him late into the night were now pummelling him with the intensity of a mob of bokoblins holding bats.

Perhaps he had become too accustomed to the warm ocean breeze because his eyes watered incessantly as he gained altitude and the inland climate shifted to something colder and drier.

He wanted to fly forever.

Unfortunately, only at times like that did you reach your destination faster than ever.

He was back at Hyrule castle in an unfathomably short amount of time.

He perched hesitantly on the broken remains of a guard tower that had been neglected in the first couple stages of renovations and wiped at his face.

The knights were training their archery over by the hylian range.

They looked happier than he had ever seen them when they were under his wing. They shot… better. Don’t get him wrong, they were still _terrible_ but there had been marked improvements in his absence.

Zelda could be seen in her distant garden, once again enraptured in one of her interests- this time a small piece of sheikah tech. She took a sip of her tea and frowned.

A small glimmer of something sentimental and affectionate punched through to morose cloud that seemed to envelop him and he 'hmph'ed in amusement. The drink must have gotten cold again.

Automatically, Revali tensed his wings in preparation to fly over and brew her a new cup but she had already stood and begun boiling her own water.

Oh.

He gave one last cursory glance of Hyrule castle, and then he left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woof.  
> I had some pretty intense writer's block but thank you everyone for convincing me to push through it, all of the support was so kind! I think the 'finding link' bug is finally re-planted in my brain.  
> (and thanks chromo for letting me sound off ideas and helping me connect some things/outline- <3 u)


	18. Chapter 18

Rito village loomed proudly in the distance. The large pillar that his people had made their colony of roosts upon had stood fast for tens of thousands of years, it wasn’t a surprise that a hundred more made no discernible difference.

From the air, being still so far away, he could almost pretend the rest of his home was the same too. The illusion was bound to die of course. Even if his mind was happy to cling to the image, his eyes were too good to lie to him.

Still, he didn’t turn back. This was something he needed to see for himself.

The prickle of Medoh nudging her way into the far corners of his consciousness was… comforting. It was like being welcomed back by a friend and her presence gave him the courage to stop right at the very edge of the caldera-formed moat that circled the village. He watched the daily hustle and bustle from afar.

Yes.

They were all strangers alright.

He had known it would be this way of course, but there was something different about knowing it and witnessing it.

He spent more time there than he’d admit just watching the unfamiliar figures move around in bizarrely familiar patterns: Fletchlings raced up and down the spiralling stairs, wives with proudly displayed feathers in their hair gathered at the communal kitchen to chat. Warriors would fly in and out of the village, many swooping down onto his favourite landing as they returned from their duties before strutting home, unknowingly following the exact footsteps of their ancestors.

He couldn’t help but think in that moment that the village was remarkably like a divine beast: One could replace all the gears and the machine will run just the same. He didn’t know if it was heartening or disquieting.

He stood there staring at it all like it was some sort of abstract painting as he tried to give a name to whatever it made him feel. The sun continued its path through the sky and no final ruling was made.

Maybe it was that he wasn’t feeling much of anything at all?

Everything had dimmed a few shades since Link had died. (Well, he wasn’t dead but he was dead to _him_ so same difference) 

That biological desire to stand amongst them all wasn’t manifesting the way it should have. The wind was still pushing him southeast. Perhaps to where Zelda was. Or maybe (more likely) to where he’d last seen Link… As mad as he was at him right now, it was undeniable that Link had a way of making things just feel _right_.

(and if he was being honest, nothing had felt _right_ for a very, very long time)

Some of the anger at Link was fading now but he clenched his wingtips deep into his thighs in an attempt to hold it inside himself.

He didn’t **want** it to subside.

The Rito species had a tendency to find home in people rather than places. The instinct begins in a rito’s early life as hatchling imprinting on their parents and the habit of collecting and sticking to a flock continues into adulthood.

He wondered if things would have been different now if all of the other champions had been rito. They probably wouldn’t have split up. No, they definitely would have stayed together. He couldn’t comprehend how their shared experiences culminated to so little. The other species were just so… confusing.

Mipha made sense of course, her friends and family still remained but Urbosa and Daruk had essentially abandoned him for _landmarks_ in the two worst places in all of Hyrule.

He hadn’t noticed how bothered he was by it all until _Link_ though.

He had forgotten what that wonderful feeling of belonging was like until he had spent that last week at the hylian’s side.

He had thought he had finally found someone on a similar wavelength to him but maybe he was wrong. Or who knows, maybe he _was_ _right_. Maybe it was all a misunderstanding, but the truth was… he’d been unconsciously looking for this. An excuse for himself to force some distance that he in no way wanted but probably needed.

Honestly, there was a secondary hurt buried much deeper down that was much harder to address because it wasn’t something he could brush off with something as easy as anger.

Yes, he couldn’t be Link’s pet… but he also wouldn’t be able to handle just being Link’s ‘friend’. Not forever.

This insight into Link’s true feelings was a goddessend. He had been caught in the flow of their vacation and he never stopped to assess what he truly wanted out of Link.

Now that he had some time on his own to reflect, he knew without a doubt that it wasn’t friendship.

If he stayed with Link, Link would continue doing his frustratingly endearing Linkisms forever like nuzzling into his feathers and touching his hair and he’d just keep falling more and more in love until it stopped feeling good and the unrequitedness of it all would start ripping him apart from the inside. By then, he probably wouldn’t be able to leave. Not even for his own good.

So no, he didn’t want to stay with Link. He didn’t want to go to the castle either where he was universally hated by everyone except Zelda. Honestly, he wasn’t sure what he wanted anymore but at that moment, it wasn’t Rito Village either.

Maybe if he walked in and got to know the people he could eventually feel re-integrated and content but he couldn’t take that first step. If Rito Village was a well-running machine, he was the loose part that would cause everything to jam and fall into momentary disarray. He couldn’t handle watching all of those people stopping in their tracks, disrupting the centuries-long daily routines to stare at him as he made his way through.

Even worse would come when he’d open his beak, inevitably say something _wrong_ as he so often did and ruin everything.

He just couldn’t.

He gave Rito Village one last regretful look, turned his back, and launched himself into the air.

* * *

“Excellent” Rotana said, “this is exactly what I needed, thank you very much!”

Link gave a little nod. He wasn’t ordinarily much of a talker, but he was even less so when he was in his Gerudo vai disguise.

The towering archeologist was bent at nearly a ninety-degree angle as she poured over the map that Link had marked up for her and left on the table.

“I’ll prepare an expedition immediately, this is a ground-breaking discovery,” she mumbled to herself, tracing a finger along imagined routes, entirely forgetting her company in her fixation.

There was a tugging at the fabric of Link’s pant leg and he turned around to find her sister Pearle. “It’ll be impossible to get her attention while she’s like this- but she’s very thankful! She was planning on giving you this.”

Pearle handed him a small bag of Rupees and Link smiled appreciatively- which he realized a moment too late she’d have no way of seeing under his veil. He nodded again awkwardly and hurried out back into the busy streets of the town bazaar.

He took a long breath. Things were so much easier when he had an ongoing quest. Now he did his best to keep himself busy but there was always a forlorn emptiness each time he completed an errand that he absolutely hated. He didn’t like being confronted with the ever-present question of ‘what’s next?’

He had been so relieved at the small pile of letters waiting for him at his Hateno home when he got back from Lurelin. Ever since the calamity ended, he tended to get a few now and again from people he met on his journey. They were mostly always asking for favours which might have seemed like the opposite of a good thing but honestly, Link appreciated them immensely. He hardly knew how to function without having something he needed to do.

That week in Lurelin was probably the first time he ever managed to relax.

…but then in the aftermath of Lurelin he had never been so hungry and desperate for a distraction.

He fulfilled each and every request with the intensity and concentration he had back when he was focused on saving the world. It didn’t matter if some of them were as simple as: _‘Hey Link, I know you get around to everywhere- I was wondering if you have any goron spice to spare? I need it for a recipe and am not sure who to go to’_

This was the last one though. The last letter. He’d reached the very western edge of Hyrule and was clinging to the hope that this request from Rotana for some research assistance would drag out- but of course, he found what she was looking for quickly and now he had absolutely nothing left on his to-do-list.

With nothing to keep him occupied, he realized he wasn’t feeling even a fraction better.

He had pushed aside all the heartache in favour of distraction and figured the ‘healing’ would go on in the background, like with a broken arm. It didn’t.

He resisted the urge to pull out Revali’s little note right then and there. Instead, he kicked a smoothed pebble by his foot dejectedly and watched it tumble across the bumpy stone pathway.

The rock stopped at the feet of another and Link quickly looked up to apologize, realizing he had almost hit her.

It was Ashai and she didn’t look mad. In fact, her expression was almost… sympathetic?

The pink-haired women crinkled her eyes in understanding, “We certainly know that look here, little one.”

“Look?” Link asked.

“Believe it or not, Gerudo Town is a TOP vacation spot for young women of every race after a bad break up or a failed love connection. You are not the first heart-broken hylian vai to find herself wandering out to seek temporary refuge in a voeless society.”

Link opened his mouth to object but honestly, she wasn’t wrong.

“Sorry if I’m coming across invasive,” the woman laughed, “but we’ve learned how to smell your type a mile away. I _am_ correct am I not?”

Link paused and finally nodded.

She took his hand, “Well in that case, may I suggest you come to today’s ‘voe and you’ class? The quickest way to feeling better is to talk about it, and it makes a great case study for the other vai. It would be lovely to have someone in who has had some real experience. Plus, who knows, maybe you’ll feel inspired by our tips to put yourself back out there!”

Talk about it…

Link had been on a continent-wide journey for the sole purpose of doing the exact _opposite_ of that.

He held back a groan. It sounded optional in the way she had phrased it but Ashai had his hand in a pincher grip and he got the impression she wasn’t planning on letting go.

Well… maybe this was something he needed to do. The ‘distracting himself until he felt better’ approach clearly wasn’t working.

He ruefully allowed the giantess to drag him off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and another chapter down! 
> 
> I've been trying to actually learn how to digitally draw over the pandemic (which means I tried it over the summer, gave up for several months and am finally picking the effort back up). Missing our fluffier moments in this fic, I did a little drawy-drawing the other day of their little Lurelin vaca while binge-watching (for the somthing'th time) a billion episodes of the office.  
> https://umbreonix.tumblr.com/post/640708398682374144/bath-time-with-the-boys-a-scene-from-my  
> 


End file.
